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Columbia  ©nibersitp 


LIBRARY 


GIVEN    BY 


GIFT  OF 
H.  W.  WILSON 


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The  War 

Week  by  Week 


As  Seen  from 
New     York 

Being  Observations  from 
Life 

By 
Edward  S-  Martin 


New  York 

E»  ?♦  Dutton  &  Company 

Publishers 


GIFT  OF 
H.   W.   VVILSOM 
MAR  2 2  1929 


Copyright,  19  M 

By   life    publishing    COMPANY 

Copyright,   1914 
By    E.   p.  button    &    COMPANY 


013(S33 


rbe  "Rniclierbocher  preea,  "Hew  I?orft 


INTRODUCTION 

THE  war  in  Europe  caught 
the  general  American  mind 
quite  unprepared.  Very- 
few  of  us  had  given  more  than 
passing  attention  to  the  Euro- 
pean situation.  Most  of  us  who 
thought  about  it  at  all,  considered 
that  though  the  factors  that  im- 
periled peace  were  obstinate  and 
awkward,  the  cost  of  a  great  war 
and  the  disturbance  attending  it 
would  be  so  enormous  as  to  be 
prohibitive.  So  we  had  formed 
a  habit  of  not  taking  first-class 
European     war-clouds     seriously. 


iv  INTRODUCTION 

The  second-class  clouds,  we  had 
noticed,  did  sometimes  result  in 
war,  but  the  big  ones  had  to  be 
blown  away;  they  threatened  too 
much.  When  the  trouble  over 
Servia  and  the  murdered  arch- 
duke came  along  we  were  merely 
interested  to  see  how  Europe 
would  get  out  of  it.  That  she 
would  in  some  way  escape  serious 
consequences  we  did  not  doubt. 
We  had  often  before  watched  the 
European  diplomatists  side-step, 
and  we  expected  to  see  them  do  it 
again. 

They  would  have  done  it,  who 
can  doubt,  if  time  had  been  given 
them,  but  as  it  was,  the  incredible 
happened.  These  following  pages 
are  a  record  in  their  way  of  how  the 


INTRODUCTION  v 

succeeding  events  affected  Ameri- 
can sensibilities.  No  one,  of 
course,  can  assume  to  speak  the 
sentiments  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  but  a  very  large 
majority  of  our  people  seem  to 
have  been  affected  alike  by  the 
events  that  passed  before  them 
and  the  news  and  the  arguments 
that  they  read,  and  their  conclu- 
sions and  resulting  opinions  are 
probably  reflected  with  fair  accur- 
acy in  the  pages  that  come  after. 
Only  citizens  of  German  birth  or 
descent  and  a  few  others  have 
been  able  to  accept  the  German 
point  of  view  and  approve  the 
German  proceedings.  The  rest  of 
us — apparently  four-fifths  of  the 
population — have   seemed   to   see 


vi  INTRODUCTION 

things  about  alike,  and  to  place 
our  sympathies  almost  entirely 
with  the  Allies. 

This  American  attitude  appears 
to  have  been  a  surprise,  as  well  as 
matter  for  concern,  to  the  Ger- 
mans, who  seem  to  have  expected 
that  to  us  as  neutrals,  their  cause 
would  look  good.  There  are  de- 
tails of  their  position  that  have 
a  claim  on  neutral  sympathy,  and 
in  the  end  may  get  it,  but  from 
the  start  these  details  have  been 
crowded  out  of  consideration  by 
the  alarming  facts  of  the  proceed- 
ings before  us,  and  the  still  more 
alarming  narrations  and  hypotheses 
put  forward  to  account  for  them. 
We  disapproved  Germany's  im- 
mense preparedness  for  war.     We 


INTRODUCTION  vii 

saw  in  her  and  no  one  else  the 
author  and  compeller  of  the  crush- 
ing armament  of  Europe.  From 
Bernhardi  we  learned  of  a  theory 
and  practice  of  war,  which,  unim- 
portant when  read  as  an  academic 
dissertation,  towered  up  into  the 
proportions  of  a  revelation  when  all 
the  actual  motions  of  the  German 
machinery  began  to  verify  Bern- 
hardi's  forecast.  We  read  Usher 
and  took  notice  of  Pan-Germanism ; 
we  considered  the  effect  of  Niet- 
zsche and  Treitschke  on  the  Ger- 
man moral  sense,  and  all  the  time, 
while  we  were  gathering  what  ideas 
we  coiild  about  the  contents  of  the 
contemporary  German  brain,  we 
had  in  daily  view  the  tremendous 
drive  of  the   German  Army  over 


viii  INTRODUCTION 

the  line  into  neutral  Belgium,  and 
presently  on  and  on,  in  spite  of 
defenders,  through  the  North  of 
France  to  the  gates  of  Paris. 

With  that  great  spectacle  of 
invasion,  especially  of  little  Bel- 
gium, before  our  eyes,  no  use  to 
tell  us  that  the  Germans  were 
banded  together  to  defend  their 
fatherland.  For  us  there  was  no 
sign  in  these  proceedings  of  defense 
of  the  fatherland.  It  all  looked 
like  a  well-planned  raid  on  Europe, 
designed  to  capture  from  anyone 
who  had  it,  anything  on  land  or 
sea  which  the  German  imagina- 
tion had  come  to  find  necessary 
to  realize  the  huge  German  ideal. 

We  paid  little  attention  to 
Russia.     Russia  is  a  country  we 


INTRODUCTION  ix 

Americans  read  about.  But  Bel- 
gium and  France  we  know.  Penn- 
sylvania people  know  them  far 
better  than  they  know  California, 
and  Californians  know  them  far 
better  than  they  know  Pennsyl- 
vania. They  are  as  familiar  as 
Massachusetts,  and  even  more 
edifying.  It  was  impossible  to 
feel  like  chilly  neutrals  about  hav- 
ing them  ravaged,  f ought-over, 
burnt-over,  mulcted  and  Ger- 
manized. We  didn't  want  it 
done,  and  the  more  we  saw  it  done 
the  more  we  didn't  like  it. 

We  liked  nothing  the  Germans 
were  doing;  nothing  that  they 
hoped  to  do.  Every  one  of  their 
plans,  so  far  as  we  could  get  wind 
of  them,  aimed  to  make  the  world 


X  INTRODUCTICN 

look  less  attractive  to  us.  They 
were  destroying  our  friends,  de- 
stroying our  favorite  playgrounds, 
destroying,  as  at  Louvain  and 
Rheims,  objects  invaluable  to  us 
in  our  humble  aspirations  to 
understand  life.  They  were  de- 
stroying in  so  far  as  they  could  the 
world  and  the  people  and  the  order 
that  we  knew  and  dealt  with  and 
considerably  liked,  and  they  of- 
fered us  in  the  place  of  them 
'' Deutschland  iiber  allesf' 

Perhaps  we  are  ignorant,  per- 
haps we  are  selfish,  perhaps  we  are 
not  real  neutrals.  But,  again,  per- 
haps we  are  not  Yankees  for  no- 
thing. At  any  rate  the  swap  that 
Germany  proposed  did  not  look 
good  to  us  on  the  4th  of  August, 


INTRODUCTION  xi 

and  it  has  not  looked  good  to  us 
since.  We  are  ready  to  love  the 
Germans  whenever  they  become 
lovable  again  and  we  do  admire 
them  even  now;  we  are  ready 
to  move  up  and  make  room  for 
them  if  they  don't  crush  in  too 
unmannerly;  we  are  ready  to  be 
sorry  for  them  if  necessary  (as 
doubtless  it  will  be  and  is)  and 
to  help  them  as  we  can  when  they 
restmie  sanity  of  life.  But  with 
their  proceedings  in  Belgium  and 
their  purposes  in  France  we  are 
not  pleased;  no,  not  for  a  minute; 
and  if  no  choice  is  given  us  but 
whether  to  see  the  Germans 
annihilate  the  French  or  the  Rus- 
sians annihilate  the  Germans, 
while  we  don't  like  either  show,  of 


xii  INTRODUCTION 

the  two  we  prefer  to  have  the 
management  run  the  films  that 
exhibit  the  activities  of  the  Czar. 
As  for  the  Germans  and  the 
English  we  feel,  primarily,  a  good 
deal  as  we  might  feel  if  it  were  the 
Germans  and  the  Americans.  Here 
are  two  full-grown,  able-bodied 
nations.  If  they  have  differences 
that  must  be  fought  out,  let's  form 
a  ring,  and  maybe  when  they've 
lost  some  blood  there  will  be  better 
feeling  between  them.  But  there 
is  more  to  it  than  that.  England  is 
the  background  of  about  half  the 
population  of  these  States.  In  the 
British  Isles  are  the  chief  relics 
and  reminders  of  our  history  up 
to  three  hundred  years  ago.  We 
have  a  great  concern,  undoubtedly, 


INTRODUCTION  xiii 

for  the  preservation  of  that  back- 
ground. We  do  not  wish  to  see 
it  Germanized  or  devastated.  We 
want  it  still  to  be  there  when  we 
go  to  see  it. 

And  the  English  idea  of  govern- 
ment and  of  colonial  administra- 
tion is  vastly  nearer  our  idea  than 
the  German  method.  We  should 
by  no  means  like  it  to  have  the 
branches  of  the  widespreading 
British  tree  lopped  off  and  grafted 
on  to  the  Kaiser^s  ambitious 
empire. 

And  to  the  English  as  backers 
of  the  Belgians  and  allies  of  the 
French  against  the  devastating 
German  giant,  our  hearts  go 
out  instinctively.  Though,  plainly 
enough,    England    stands    in    the 


xiv  INTRODUCTION 

way  of  Germany's  ambition  and 
that  gives  Germany  an  under- 
standable grievance,  the  same  is 
true  of  every  sovereignty  now 
existing  on  earth.  We  all  stand 
in  Germany's  way  in  her  pre- 
sent mood,  and  her  apparent 
willingness  and  readiness  to  de- 
molish us  all  as  soon  as  she  gets 
around  to  it,  and  take  what  she 
wants  of  our  belongings,  does 
undeniably  give  us  a  fellow-feeling 
one  for  another,  and  an  instinctive 
inclination  to  edge  up  fairly  close 
to  one  another  imtil  Germany  gets 
new  light. 


CONTENTS 


Introduction    . 

Caught  in  a  Trap 

German  Intelligence 

How  TO  Manage  a  Continent 

How  We  Feel  and  Why    . 

Voices       .... 

The  Dream  of  Domination 

Will  They  Get  to  Paris? 

Backing  away  from  Paris 

The  Case  of  the  Kaiser    . 

A  Complaint  from  the  Kaiser 

The  Pathos  of  the  Germans 

A  Foundling     . 

The  Unscrambling  of  Europe 

Let  Us  Turn  out  Our  Pockets 


PAGE 

iii 
I 
14 
^1 
33 
43 
50 
60 

71 
79 

84 

93 

102 

118 

129 


\\n 


CONTENTS 


German    "Kultur"    and    the 
Prussian  Idea 

Dr.  Munsterberg's  Appeal 

A  Little  More  Armament   for 
Uncle  Sam!    . 

Germany,  the  Doctor 

Thinking  like  a  German 

Germany  and  Colonies 

The  German  Ideal    . 


139 
150. 

158 

171 

180 

195 
209 


The  War 

Week  by  Week 


The  War: 
Week  by  Week 


CAUGHT   IN   A  TRAP 

IS  it  that  armament  is  a  trap  and 
Europe  is  caught  in  it?  What 
is  the  inwardness  of  these  pro- 
ceedings which  now,  at  this  writ- 
ing, have  for  ten  days  been  going 
day  by  day  from  bad  to  worse,  and 
read  so  entirely  unlike  real  life  and 
so  much  like  a  forecast-story  by 
H.  G.  Wells? 

Is  it  all  happening — has  it  all 


2       THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

happened — logically,  because  the 
causes  and  the  means  were  there 
and  the  clock  had  struck?  Or  is 
it  Germany's  put-up  job  again, 
like  the  war  of  1870? 

The  extraordinary  mix-up  of  it! 
A  Slav-and-Teuton  row  in  Austria, 
that  within  ten  days  brings  every 
gun  in  Europe  out  of  its  rack,  fills 
France  and  Germany  with  weeping 
women,  sends  German  ships  scurry- 
ing to  port  or  holds  them  there, 
and  closes  every  stock  exchange 
in  the  world!  The  mere  wash  of 
this  disturbance,  look  what  it  does 
to  us !  Our  stock  exchanges  closed 
for  the  first  time  since  1873,  our 
values  disordered,  our  blessed 
tourists  by  the  thousand  running 
hither  and  yon  in  Europe,    their 


CAUGHT  IN  A  TRAP  3 

credits  useless  and  no  ships  to  bring 
them  home !  It  is  Hke  being  caught 
in  a  vast  flood,  an  overwhelming 
torrent  of  hate  and  sudden  death 
from  Europe's  broken  dam.  We 
clutch  at  the  newspapers  falling 
from  their  presses  in  continuous 
showers.  We  can  do  little  at  the 
moment  for  our  own  caught  in 
that  huge  welter  of  civilization 
running  amuck,  and  nothing  yet 
for  all  those  other  innocent  vic- 
tims of — what?  Victims  of  what? 
What  has  done  it?  With  whom  is 
the  final  reckoning  to  be  made? 
It  seems  a  war  not  brought  on  by- 
peoples,  but  by  three  aristocratic 
governments;  by  the  tottering 
Hapsburgs  and  their  allied  interests 
in  Austria,  by  those  governors  of 


4       THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

Russia  that  direct  the  irresponsible 
absolutism  of  which  the  Czar  is 
the  figurehead,  and  by  William 
the  Prussian  and  the  Germany  h© 
stands  for.  It  is  no  war  of  France, 
no  war  of  England.  Italy  as  yet 
holds  off  from  it.  It  seems  to  spell 
Austria's  desperation,  Russia's  re- 
sistance, and  Germany's  oppor- 
tunity. 

Well,  it  is  the  hundredth  year 
from  Waterloo,  and  we  shall  see 
what  we  shall  see;  signs  and  won- 
ders, who  can  doubt,  and  an  upshot 
far  beyond  calculation. 

Out  of  all  the  sudden  din  of 
rumor,  prediction,  and  mobiliza- 
tion which  has  proceeded  from 
Europe,   it  has  seemed  apparent 


CA  UGHT  IN  A   TRAP  5 

that  no  great  power  over  there 
wanted  to  fight  except  Austria, 
and  she  only  about  enough  to 
chastise  the  Servians  and  save 
herself  from  impending  disruption. 
Between  no  other  countries  was 
there  immediate  bitterness  of 
spirit.  The  rest  were  prepared, 
but    anxious    and    reluctant. 

So,  arguing  from  reasons,  it 
seemed  as  if  our  brethren  must 
manage  to  localize  the  war.  For 
England,  France,  and  Russia  to 
fight  Austria,  Italy,  and  Germany 
because  the  Austrian  Serbs  are 
unruly  and  the  Archduke  Ferdi- 
nand was  assassinated  seemed  too 
preposterous  to  happen.  It  is  in- 
credible that  it  should  happen. 
But  wars  spring  out  of  conditions 


6      THE  WAR,    WEEK  BY  WEEK 

far  deeper  than  the  immediate 
causes.  Germany  is  a  great  and 
ambitious  miHtary  power  with  im- 
portunate desires  and  an  immense- 
ly expensive  army.  The  condi- 
tion of  Europe,  sweating  under  an 
enormous  armament,  the  Triple 
Alliance  and  the  Triple  Entente 
watching  one  another  with  weap- 
ons ready,  was  a  condition  of 
long-standing  strain  and  very  un- 
stable balance.  Somehow,  some- 
time, Europe  has  got  to  have 
relief  from  such  expenditures  for 
armament  as  she  has  been  carry- 
ing; somehow,  it  would  seem, 
there  must  come  to  be,  vir- 
tually if  not  nomiinally,  the  United 
States  of  Europe,  with  a  central 
authority   strong  enough  to  keep 


CAUGHT  IN  A   TRAP  7 

order     in     the    whole   European 
family. 

As  it  is,  with  the  Alliance  and 
the  Entente,  Europe  was  organized 
for  a  huge  civil  war.  Must  that 
come,  and  vast  destruction  with  it, 
before  the  members  of  the  Euro- 
pean family  can  reach  a  larger 
understanding  and  submit  to  the 
regulation  of  the  family  council? 
Our  States  split,  fought,  and  joined 
again;  but,  slavery  gone,  there 
was  comparatively  little  to  hinder 
their  reunion.  There  is  vastly 
more  to  keep  the  nations  of  Europe 
apart  —  repulsions  of  race  and 
traditional  hatreds  without  num- 
ber, and  the  family  interests  of 
rulers,  titular  and  actual.  Still, 
half  a  loaf  is  better  than  no  bread, 


8       THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

and  a  modified  and  regulated  inde- 
pendence may  seem  preferable  to 
destruction. 


Especially  it  may  seem  so  after 
a  great  war.  To  fight,  to  suffer, 
if  need  be  to  die  for  something 
dearer  than  life  and  worth  more, 
is  one  form  of  human  satisfaction 
and  the  quarrel  with  it  has  no  very 
tenable  grounds.  But  to  fight  and 
suffer  and  die  merely  that  the  pro- 
cesses of  civilization  may  hunch 
along  by  another  jolt  is  pretty 
tedious,  and  the  doubt  if  civiliza- 
tion is  advanced  by  vast,  wholesale 
wars  makes  it  more  so.  The  end  of 
all  wars  is  peace  on  a  better  basis, 
and  the  clearing  away  of  obstacles 
to  the  development  of  the  peoples 


CA  UGHT  IN  A  TRAP  9 

whose  development  shows  the  most 
promise. 

The  last  big  war  in  Europe  gave 
Germany  an  Emperor  and  France 
a  President.  The  next  may  give 
Germany  a  President,  and  to  Rus- 
sia commission  government,  and  to 
Austria  heaven  knows  what,  for 
tradition,  when  the  smoke  clears 
away,  may  be  found  among  the 
dead  on  the  field.  Nobody  can 
guess  what  will  come  in  the  wake 
of  such  a  war  as  now  seems  under 
way;  nobody  can  say  whether 
there  will  be  a  crowned  head  left  in 
Europe.  All  anybody  can  safely 
assert  is  that  a  vast  treasure  will  be 
consumed,  and  that  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  the  best  lives  in  Europe 
will  go  out. 


lo     THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

This  enormous  topic  puts  all 
ordinary  topics  deep  in  the  shade. 
Watching  Europe  is  the  ruling  oc- 
cupation in  these  States  at  this 
writing,  and  it  is  a  pretty  lively 
job,  especially  for  thousands  of 
people  who  have  friends  traveling 
abroad,  and  who  want  mightily 
to  know  what  is  happening  to 
them  and  how  they  are  to  get 
home. 

Our  government  is  taking 
thought  actively  about  them,  of 
course,  but  war  is  not  polite,  and 
does  not  always  wait  for  non- 
combatants  to  get  out  of  the  way. 
Our  friends  in  England  we  think 
of  as  safe.  About  our  friends  in 
France  we  shall  think  with  more 
anxiety  until  we  hear  further. 


CAUGHT  IN  A  TRAP         ii 

There  is  a  great  food  problem 
coming,  and  great  money  problems. 
So  far  the  chief  function  of  these 
States  in  relation  to  the  threatened 
suicide  of  Europe  has  been  to  assist 
the  intending  decedent  in  turning 
his  effects  into  cash.  But  if  the 
threat  is  to  be  carried  out  there  will 
be  fiscal  transactions  to  conduct 
that  will  call  for  the  highest  avail- 
able skill,  and  that  has  stirred  again 
the  demand  for  Mr.  Warburg  on 
the  Federal  Reserve  Board  and  the 
prompt  completion  of  that  board 
so  that  it  may  proceed  to  business. 

If  all  Europe  is  to  be  one  tre- 
mendous moving  picture  of  war  it 
will  be  hard  for  us  to  keep  our 
minds    sufficiently    on    things    at 


12     THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

home  to  do  our  necessary  business 
here.  School  is  keeping  in  Europe 
for  all  mankind  while  these  ter- 
rific possibilities  impend.  We  are 
prone  to  forget  what  sort  men  are ; 
prone  to  think  they  have  become 
different;  have  risen  above  the 
possibilities  of  such  behaviors  as 
they  once  committed.  But  who, 
besides  Mr.  Bryan,  and  perhaps 
Mr.  Carnegie,  can  think  yet  of 
civilization  without  wars?  Men 
fight  more  politely  than  they  used 
to,  and  are  less  cruel  in  retaliation 
and  revenge,  but  there  is  as  much 
fight  in  them  as  ever,  and  when  the 
preventives  of  war  and  the  sacri- 
fices to  avert  war  and  preparations 
for  war  have  finally  got  too  irksome 
to  be  endured,  at  it  they  go,  ham- 


CAUGHT  IN  A   TRAP         13 

mer  and  tongs,  and  the  best  men 
win,  presumably.  At  any  rate,  re- 
sults come  in  that  way  that  do 
not  come  otherwise. 

If  Europe  must  have  an  enor- 
mous revolutionary  convulsion  pre- 
ceding some  new  arrangement  of 
her  institutions  and  the  relations 
of  men,  she  will  have  it,  and  have 
it  to  a  finish,  and  we  who  will  look 
on  must  learn  what  we  can  and  help 
as  we  may. 


GERMAN    INTELLIGENCE 

ARE  the  Germans  intelligent? 
Of  course  some  of  them  are. 
Individuals  of  every  pat- 
tern are  intelligent.     But  the  Ger- 
mans who  have  managed  Germany 
for  the  last  sixty  years ;  who  believe, 
as    Bismarck    did,    in   blood    and 
iron;  who  have  made  of  Germany 
such  a  wonderful  machine,  have 
made    her    strong    and    rich    and 
masterful,    and    are    so    intensely 
bent  on  securing  for  her  all  that 
may  be  coming  to  her — what  of 
them?     Are  they  intelligent  now? 
Everybody  seems  to  feel  that 
u 


GERMAN  INTELLIGENCE      15 

Germany  might  have  stopped  the 
war  that  Austria  had  started  if  she 
had  really  wanted  to.  Not  on  old 
Franz  Josef,  but  on  William  the 
Prussian,  is  laid  the  responsibility 
for  this  war.  The  belief  is  that 
the  management  of  Germany  was 
ready  for  more  of  the  great  blood- 
and-iron  tonic,  and  let  the  war 
come,  and  probably  even  en- 
couraged Austria  to  light  the 
fuse. 

It  looks  so. 

"This  time  France  must  be 
finished  so  that  she  will  make  us  no 
more  trouble."  That  sentiment, 
frankly  expressed  by  some  of  the 
German  managers,  is  part  of  the 
formidable  German  motive,  and 
along  with  it  goes  imperial,  world- 


1 6     THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

gobbling   purposes  that   it   needs 
a  large  map  even  to  discuss. 

Was  it  intelligent  of  the  German 
management  to  want  to  finish 
France  ?  Between  individual 
Frenchmen  and  individual  Ger- 
mans there  is  not  much  ill  will. 
They  can  get  on  together  perfectly 
if  conditions  are  favorable.  The 
chief  trouble  between  France  and 
Germany  since  '71  has  been  Alsace 
and  Lorraine,  captured  by  Bismarck 
and  dragged  away  over  the  French 
border.  France  must  be  finished 
because  Bismarck  carried  her  be- 
loved provinces  off  to  his  politi- 
cal harem,  and  she  will  go  after 
them  the  first  good  chance. 

But   nobody   but   the   German 
management  wants  France  to  be 


GERMAN  INTELLIGENCE      17 

"finished/'  England,  Russia,  It- 
aly, these  States,  all  the  rest  of 
us,  prefer  France  in  the  unfinished 
French  state  as  heretofore.  We 
want  no  German  jailers  in  charge 
of  her,  no  German  flavors  in 
her  honorable  dishes,  no  German 
admixture  in  her  architecture. 
Wedo  not  want  any  made-in- 
Germany  France.  No,  no,  not 
any! 

It  is  not  popular,  this  idea  of 
' '  finishing ' '  France.  France  is  too 
valuable  to  be  "finished."  For 
one  thing,  she  is  charming.  For 
another,  she  is  a  laboratory  of 
civilization  where  experiments  are 
made  in  government,  in  religion 
and  irreligion,  in  cooking,  in  art. 


1 8     THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

in  the  regulation  of  the  affections, 
in  everything.  Of  course,  to  finish 
her  is  the  idea  not  of  the  German 
people  but  of  the  German  manage- 
ment. The  German  people  would 
not  gain  a  lap  by  finishing  France. 
They  probably  prefer  variety  in  the 
world,  as  the  rest  of  us  do,  and  like 
the  picture  better  with  France 
left  French.  But  the  German 
management  is  a  different  affair. 
It  is  no  more  a  free  agent  than  a 
locomotive  engine.  It  has  to  run 
on  the  rails  that  have  been  laid 
down  for  it  by  Bismarck  and  the 
engineers  before  and  since.  It 
has  got  to  hang  onto  Alsace  and 
Lorraine,  and  get  all  it  can  where- 
ever  it  can  get  it,  and  stick  to  blocd 
and  iron,  and  load  up  with  arma- 


GERMAN  INTELLIGENCE      19 

ment,  and  plot  to  swallow  Hol- 
land, and  plot  to  swallow  Denmark 
and  Belgium,  and  plot  a  German 
pathway  to  the  Mediterranean, 
and  paint  the  map  of  the  world  the 
German  color  to  the  last  possible 
peninsula  and  cape.  The  manage- 
ment is  free  only  to  acquire.  It 
may  not  be  merciful ;  it  may  not  be 
generous ;  it  may  not  even  keep  its 
word  if  its  '*  interest "  conflicts  with 
it.  It  may  only  be  greedy  and 
grab  and  rise  up  early  to  keep  what 
it  gets. 

It  sounds  like  the  story  of  the 
New  Haven  Railroad  over  again, 
doesn^t  it?  Can  it  be  that  the 
Kaiser  is  the  Charles  S.  Mel- 
len    of    Germany?       They     say 


20     THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

France  has  only  one  joke;  certain- 
ly autocracy  has  only  one  story. 
Live  and  let  live  seems  to  be  a 
necessary  rule  of  life,  but  it  is  a 
rule  that  autocracies  can  never 
keep.  Their  interests  will  always 
conflict  with  the  let-live  end  of  it; 
their  existence  is  too  precarious  to 
risk  a  competition  of  strong  neigh- 
bors; they  must  be,  and  take 
thought  always  to  keep  on  being, 
the  great  trusts  that  are  so  strong 
that  nothing  can  touch  them,  and 
that  are  able  at  any  time  to  swal- 
low anyone  that  is  inconveniently 
active  in  the  same  business.  It  is 
the  old  story  again  that  the  chain 
that  binds  the  slave  binds  the 
master.  Autocrats  are  no  more 
free    than    autocratized     people. 


GERMAN  INTELLIGENCE     21 

There  is  a  "must"  for  Hapsburgs, 
a  "must"  for  HohenzoUerns,  and 
they  must  do  it  or  quit. 

However,  autocracy  is  a  process. 
Some  things  are  accomplished  by  it 
that  could  hardly  come  otherwise. 
Diaz  was  a  process;  Standard  Oil 
has  been  a  process;  Mr.  Morgan 
was  a  great  process  in  some  re- 
spects, and  the  German  Empire 
could  hardly  have  been  organized 
in  a  mass-meeting.  The  empire 
was  all  right  enough — a  going 
concern  of  great  efficiency  and  one 
of  the  leading  assets  of  civilization. 
The  German  people  are  very  valu- 
able folks ;  nobody  doubts  it.  But  is 
their  management  up  to  the  date? 
Is  it  intelligent  with  a  current  and 
contemporaneous  intelligence,  or  is 


22     THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

it  driving  along  unadjusted  to  its 
generation? 

That  seems  to  be  the  great 
question  whereof  these  great  war 
movies  now  proceeding  may  have 
the  answer  coming  in  their  films. 
The  Germans  are  intelligent.  In 
spite  of  the  large  detachments  of 
intelligence  from  that  country  for 
the  benefit  of  this  one  that  followed 
1848,  there  is  plenty  left.  They 
are  able  and  they  are  well  trained. 
They  will  not  like  to  tip  out  their 
board  of  directors  and  discharge 
their  hereditary  manager,  the  gen- 
ial and  exemplary  William  Hohen- 
zollem.  He  is  a  good  man  of 
the  kind  and  liked  and  respected. 
But  if  he  is  out  of  date  what  can 


GERMAN  INTELLIGENCE     23 

they  do?  If  Germany  is  a  mere 
HohenzoUern  asset  the  creditors 
may  get  it,  but  if  Hohenzollerns 
are  a  mere  Hability  of  Germany 
they   can   be  discharged. 

That  is  where  France  has  the 
best  of  it.  She  fired  her  hereditary 
manager  along  about  1793,  and 
has  never  had  one  since  for  long  at 
a  time,  and  since  1871  committees 
of  her  stockholders  have  run  her 
business,  and  done  fairly  well. 

Never  was  anything  so  inter- 
esting as  this  war.  They  say  that 
England  may  run  out  of  news 
paper.  Appalling!  Any  live  per- 
son hereabouts  would  rather  give 
up  food  than  newspapers.  The 
Evening  Sun  declares  that,  regard 


24     THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

being  had  to  the  means  of  trans- 
mitting the  news,  the  week  ending 
August  6th  was  "the  most  inter- 
esting seven  days  any  generation 
of  man  has  lived  through. "  Very 
likely;  and  the  second  act  in  the 
great  drama  may  make  the  first 
act  seem  tame. 

We  are  getting  the  climax  of 
materialism.  One  recalls  reading 
lately  with  amusement  mixed  with 
sympathy  the  suggestion  of  Mr. 
R.  A.  Cram,  reviver  of  the  Gothic, 
that  we  are  at  the  beginning  of  a 
new  five-hundred-year  period  in 
which  what  we  call ' '  modem  civili- 
zation,"  dating  roughly  from  the 
fall  of  Constantinople  in  1453, 
"will  dissolve  and  disappear  as 
completely  as  the  Roman  Empire 


GERMAN  INTELLIGENCE     25 

vanished  at  the  first  node  after  the 
birth  of  Christ."  And,  then,  Mr. 
Cram  suggested,  we  will  get  back 
the  best  of  what  was  in  "the  great 
Christian  Middle  Ages." 

This  idea  seemed  interesting 
though  fantastic,  but  nothing  seems 
fantastic  any  more,  and  it  is  ''a  lead- 
ing banker"  whom  a  newspaper 
quotes  as  saying,  anent  the  collapse 
of  the  mechanism  of  exchange: 

'*  We  have  been  building  up  this 
delicate  fabric  for  hundreds  of 
years  and  we  thought  that  it  was 
in  perfect  working  order  and  was 
sufficient  to  stand  up  under  any 
contingencies.  But  it  has  broken 
down  in  a  night  and  the  world 
plunged  into  a  condition  like  that 
prevailing  in  the  Middle  Ages." 


26     THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

The  world  may  not  be  going 
all  the  way  with  Mr.  Cram,  but 
it  has  made  quite  a  lurch  in  his 
direction. 


HOW  TO  MANAGE  A  CONTINENT 

IT  is  evident  that  the  European 
method  of  running  a  continent 
is  behind  the  times;  so  obvi- 
ously and  fatally  behind  that  it 
has  come  to  terrible  smash  and  in- 
volved everyone  concerned  in  it  in 
an  incalculable  disaster.  The  prin- 
ciple of  this  collapsed  method  has 
been  every  nation  for  itself  with 
such  help  as  it  could  attract,  and 
the  devil  take  Europe.  There 
have  always  been  combinations, 
but  they  have  been  temporary. 
There  have  been  concerts  of  the 

powers  and  Ententes  and  Alliances 
27 


28     THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

to  preserve  the  balance  of  power, 
but  nothing  effective  enough  to 
permit  any  European  nation  to 
allow  her  powder  to  run  low  or 
miss  the  latest  thing  in  guns  and 
war  material. 

Think  what  life  in  these  States 
would  be  if  they  all  had  to  arm  and 
drill  and  carry  guns  against  one 
another!  Think  of  New  York 
setting  up  to  be  boss  of  the  family 
and  maintaining  a  fleet  in  coalition 
with  Connecticut  and  Rhode 
Island  in  rivalry  with  Massachu- 
setts and  Maine!  Think  of  the 
ambitions  of  Illinois  to  control 
the  waterway  to  the  Atlantic,  and 
the  anxiety  of  Missouri  to  keep 
clear  the  way  to  the  Gulf !  Think 
of  Texas  with  separate  interests,  of 


MANAGING  A  CONTINENT    29 

California  with  still  another  set  of 
needs  and  rivalries  and  an  army 
and  navy  to  back  them!  Think, 
for  short,  of  hot  water,  and  then  of 
hotter  water,  and  more  of  it,  then 
of  immense  quantities  of  boiling 
water  under  pressure,  and  you  will 
have  an  idea  what  this  country 
would  be  if  run  on  the  European 
plan. 

Incidentally  you  will  get  a  no- 
tion of  what  the  American  Civil 
War  was  fought  to  avoid,  and  of 
what  the  Monroe  Doctrine  was 
contrived  to  avert,  and  of  the  value 
to  peace  of  the  disposition  that  left 
Cuba  her  autonomy,  that  seeks 
now  to  open  a  path  to  independ- 
ence for  the  Philippines,  and  that 
has   held   off   with   scruples   that 


30     THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

have  been  so  much  criticized  from 
every  sign  of  land-hunger  in 
Mexico.  If  a  great,  preponderant 
power  is  to  keep  the  peace  in  a 
continent  it  must  not  be  selfish  and 
it  must  be  trustworthy,  and  it 
must  respect  minority  represen- 
tation. Moreover,  it  must  not  be 
too  free  with  its  neighbors'  land- 
marks. Napoleon  tried  to  rear- 
range the  landmarks  of  Europe, 
and  they  were  too  much  for  him. 
Bismarck  took  Alsace  and  Lor- 
raine and  Schleswig-H  o  1  s  t  e  i  n ; 
Austria  grabbed  Bosnia  and  Herze- 
govina and  abolished  the  Sanjak 
of  Novibazar.  Behold  the  fruits 
of  those  larcenies!  Enterprising 
European  autocrats  and  their 
boards  of    managers  must  be 


MANAGING  A   CONTINENT    31 

broken  of  their  propensity  to 
change  the  map  and  insist  on  blue 
or  green  peoples  living  in  yellow  or 
red  districts.  The  European  mind 
must  learn  the  lesson  that  the 
American  mind  is  born  to — the 
lesson  of  a  continental  family 
made  up  of  diverse  individuals, 
actively  competitive,  but  sub- 
missive to  such  limitations  of  in- 
dividual action  as  the  integrity 
and  prosperity  of  the  family 
require. 

Autocracies,  not  peoples,  have 
got  Europe  into  its  present  fearful 
mess.  Autocracies  and  their  nar- 
row selfishness  and  their  frightful 
blunders  have  fastened  militarism 
on  her  and  brought  her  to  the 
brink  of  hell.     She  will  come  back, 


32     THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

but  how  can  they  come  back? 
Surely  they  are  all  riding  to  a  fall 
— Hapsburgs,  Hohenzollerns  and 
Romanoffs — for  though  Russia's 
lot  is  cast  in  with  the  democratic 
governments  and  their  success  may 
seem  to  promise  that  her  present 
government  will  stand,  she  cannot 
escape  a  salvation  that  has  become 
epidemic  in  Europe.  She  will  get 
her  share. 


HOW  WE  FEEL  AND  WHY 

SOMETIMES  the  clouds 
come  up  and  gather  black 
and  threaten  torrents,  and 
then  the  wind  changes  and  they 
blow  away  without  a  drop. 

So  also  with  war-clouds.  They 
have  so  often  blown  away  without 
a  gun  fired.  But  not  this  last 
time.  This  time  there  has  come 
war;  not  a  mere  single  war,  but  a 
sudden  cloudburst  of  wars  that 
fairly  beggars  expectation  in  its 
menace. 

At  this  writing  that  is  still  about 
all  we  know.     We  have  had  the 

3  33 


34     THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

furious  blast  that  precedes  the 
storm  and  watched  the  scurrying 
of  wayfarers  for  shelter.  We  have 
seen  the  lightning  strike  in  a  few 
places,  but  the  great  destructive 
energies  have  not  shown  their 
power  yet.  There  have  been 
some  thousands  killed,  perhaps — 
the  news  as  yet  comes  very  weak  in 
detail — a  few  vessels  sunk  or  cap- 
tured; but,  as  we  write  in  the 
second  week  of  disturbance,  the 
chief  destruction  has  been  to  con- 
fidence and  commerce.  It  is  as 
though  Europe  was  afire.  And 
so  she  is,  and  no  one  putting  out 
the  blaze,  but  the  available  mili- 
tary population  of  six  countries 
running  to  add  to  it,  and  more 
expected. 


HOW  WE  FEEL  AND  WHY    35 

What  we  know  who  write  is  that 
enormous  levies  of  trained  soldiers 
are  on  their  way  to  great  battles. 
We  know  the  Belgians,  to  the 
wonder  of  onlookers,  have  checked 
the  German  advance  through  their 
borders,  and  nicked  with  an  im- 
pressive and  cheering  gash  the 
prestige  of  "invincible  Germany." 
We  know  nothing  worth  mention- 
ing about  the  English  and  German 
fleets.  We  know  that  Europe  is 
full  of  our  friends  and  neighbors, 
caught  in  the  great  conflagration, 
and  not  able  as  yet  to  escape  from 
it.  But  the  edges  of  the  picture 
are  all  as  yet  that  we  can  see.  The 
center  is  veiled  still.  No  doubt 
our  readers  of  this  issue  will  have 
seen  some  of  it.     We  think  of  them 


36     THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

a  good  deal  as  one  thinks  of  people 
who  have  had  a  look-in  on  the 
Judgment  Day. 

The  unanimity  of  sentiment  in 
this  country  against  Germany  is 
surprising.  It  is  not  anti- German, 
and  it  is  not  pro-English.  It  seems 
to  be  a  judgment  given  promptly 
and  spontaneously  on  the  merits  of 
the  case  as  seen  by  American  eyes. 
As  a  people  we  have  come  in  the 
last  fifty  years  to  be  almost  as  near 
kin  to  the  Germans  as  to  the  Eng- 
lish. We  respect  the  German 
ability  and  value  German  friend- 
ship; nevertheless,  the  American 
mind  records  and  discloses  with 
hardly  appreciable  dissent  the 
impression    that    the    English, 


HOW  WE  FEEL  AND  WHY    37 

French,  and  Russians  are  fighting 
in  this  war  in  behalf  of  the  liberties 
of  all  the  world,  and  that  Germany 
and  Austria  are  seeking  to  impose 
on  the  world  a  despotic  authority  to 
which  it  would  be  ruinous  to  yield. 
For  fifteen  years  in  this  country 
a  steady  fight  has  been  going  on 
against  commercial  despotism.  It 
has  been  a  hard  fight,  the  harder 
because  it  has  seemed  to  many  to 
be  a  fight  against  efficiency.  We 
think  we  have  won  it,  and  we  hope 
that  in  the  long  run  the  result  will 
prove  not  to  be  prejudicial  to 
efficiency.  But  however  it  may 
turn  out,  this  fight  against  powers 
that  were,  and  seemed  indomitable, 
has  perceptibly  trained  and  edu- 
cated   the    American   mind.       In 


38     THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

many  particulars  we  think  differ- 
ently from  what  we  thought  fifteen 
years  ago.  What  was  radical 
opinion  then  is  public  opinion  now. 
We  have  thrown  off  the  yoke  of  the 
railroads  and  the  trusts  that  had 
dominion  over  us.  How  we  shall 
get  along  without  the  guidance 
they  were  used  to  give  us  we  do  not 
know,  but  we  not  only  hope  to  get 
along  without  the  harm  to  our- 
selves that  would  inevitably  result 
from  serious  harm  to  them,  but 
hope  that  in  the  end  they  will 
prosper  better  and  be  more  service- 
able from  having  been  put  in  their 
place. 

Germany,  with  her  stout  insist- 
ence on  having  her  "place   in  the 


HOW  WE  FEEL  AND  WHY    39 

sun,"  no  matter  who  must  be 
crowded  out  of  it,  has  seemed  to 
Americans  to  personify  the  com- 
mercial despotism  that  they  have 
fought  long  and  finally  beaten  at 
home.  Her  word  to  Europe  and 
all  the  world  has  been,  "I  shall 
have  what  I  want,  and  I  have  the 
power  to  take  it."  With  that 
spirit  in  control  of  her  government 
and  people  she  has  forced  arma- 
ment on  armament  on  all  her 
neighbors  and  compelled  them  to 
the  conclusion  that  there  would  be 
no  peace  until  it  had  been  settled 
by  arms  whether  Germany  or  the 
rest  of  Europe  was  the  stronger. 
As  to  that,  we  shall  know  in  due 
time,  but  the  instant  Europe  wins, 
if  she  does  win,  it  will  be  a  case 


40     THE  WAR,   WEEK  BY  WEEK 

like  our  case  of  the  railroads  and 
the  trusts.  To  destroy  them 
would  be  only  a  shade  less  bad 
than  to  be  ruled  by  them.  Ger- 
many is  a  very  important  spoke 
in  the  wheel  of  civilization.  The 
moment  it  has  been  drubbed  into 
her  that  she  is  not  the  whole  wheel 
it  will  be  necessary  to  help  her  with 
such  repairs  that  she  can  go  on 
with  her  work.  As  much  as  these 
States  are  anti-German  because 
Germany  seems  to  need  the  illu- 
mination of  defeat,  so  they  will  be 
pro-German  just  as  soon  as  she 
has  had  her  lesson. 

As  for  the  Slav  peril,  which 
Professor  Miinsterberg  and  Pro- 
fessor Richard  make  so  much  of, 
there  are  very  few  shivers  running 


HOW  WE  FEEL  AND  WHY    41 

up  American  backs  on  account  of 
that.  The  Slav  peril  is  remote; 
the  German  peril  was  imminent, 
and  Europe  was  justified  in  taking 
counsel  from  the  copy-book  and 
doing  the  next  thing. 

A  great  war  is  a  great  paci- 
ficator of  squabbles.  This  one  in 
Europe  has  pitched  the  Ulster 
disturbance  out  of  court  and  made 
the  militants  negligible.  Nobody 
in  England  has  time  to  bother 
with  invented  troubles  and  hos- 
tilities when  real  ones  press  so 
hard  on  British  energies.  It  is  a 
good  deal  so  with  our  minor  diffi- 
culties. There  couldn't  be  a  great 
railroad  strike.  It  was  no  time  for 
it.     So    the    railroads    agreed    to 


42     THE  WAR.   WEEK  BY  WEEK 

unacceptable  terms  of  arbitration. 
There  was  no  time  for  any  more 
fooling  by  hostile  Senators  over 
the  Federal  Reserve  Board,  so  Mr. 
Warburg  was  confirmed  and  the 
Board  completed  by  the  appoint- 
ment and  acceptance  of  Mr.  De- 
lano. Mr.  Warburg,  by  the  way,  is 
a  German  product,  not  very  long 
out  of  Hamburg  and  only  lately 
naturalized;  and  yet,  though  gen- 
eral sentiment  is  so  strongly 
against  the  German  Government 
in  the  war,  there  seems  not  to  have 
been  a  voice  raised  against  Mr. 
Warburg  as  a  near-German. 


VOICES 

PERSONS  who  are  in  the  habit 
of  talking  acceptably  to  the 
general  public,  and  have 
acquired  the  advertisement  incid- 
ent to  that  privilege,  can  make 
themselves  heard,  and  are  heard 
gladly,  even  in  a  din  of  war.  The 
more  the  din  and  the  bigger  the 
babel  of  unidentified  cries,  the 
more  acceptable  is  the  sound  of 
the  voices  that  are  familiar. 

Not  many  German  voices  are 
familiar  here  except  those  Germans 
or  German-Americans  who  are  re- 
sident in  this  country  and  speak 

43 


44     THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

in  English.  Professor  Munster- 
berg,  of  Harvard,  has  long-stand- 
ing habits  of  public  admonition. 
We  have  heard  abundantly  from 
him  since  war  began,  and  fully 
also  from  Professor  Ernst  Rich- 
ard, of  Columbia.  Both  of  these 
gentlemen  chide  us  for  our  feeling 
that  Germany  needs  to  be  dis- 
ciplined; both  of  them  offer  us 
pictures  of  her  as  the  long-suffering 
defender  of  civilization  and  bul- 
wark of  Europe  against  the  insurg- 
ing  Slav.  Neither  of  them  seems 
to  feel  that  in  Germany,  as  often 
happens  elsewhere,  prosperity  has 
outrun  manners. 

Voices  from  England  come  over 
the  cables.  We  have  had  the 
more  or  less  familiar  tones  of  John 


VOICES  45 

Jay  Chapman,  shocked  at  being 
shoveled  upon  a  train  and  herded 
out  of  Germany,  recounting  ''the 
awe-striking  brutaHty  of  actual 
war,"  the  disappearance  in  the 
handling  of  American  refugees  of 
''every  decency  existing  in  soci- 
ety,'* proclaiming  that  "the  fu- 
ture of  free  government  of  the 
modern  world  is  now  being  safe- 
guarded by  blood  and  treasure  by 
Britain"  as  it  was  in  the  days  of 
Napoleon. 

We  have  had  a  remarkable  voice 
from  the  dead,  a  vision  of  Tolstoi 
brought  to  notice  and  repeatedly 
reprinted,  in  which  he  foretold 
"the  great  conflagration"  starting 
in  1 91 2  and  developing  into  a 
destructive  calamity  in  191 3,  with 


46     THE  WAR,   WEEK  BY  WEEK 

all  Europe  in  flames  and  bleeding 
and  filled  with  the  lamentations 
of  huge  battlefields.  Out  of  the 
North,  Tolstoi  said,  would  come 
in  1 91 5  a  strange  figure,  not  a  gen- 
eral, but  a  writer  or  a  journalist, 
in  whose  grip  most  of  Europe 
would  remain  until  1925.  Finally 
would  come  a  new  political  era  for 
Europe,  the  end  of  empires  and 
kingdoms,  and  the  federation  of 
the  United  States  of  Nations  to 
hold  the  world  for  the  four  great 
giants — the  Anglo-Saxons,  the 
Latins,  the  Slavs,  and  the  Mongo- 
lians. And  another  voice  from  the 
dead  is  Napoleon's:  "In  another 
hundred  years  Europe  will  be  all 
republican  or  all  Cossack." 

Through  the  World  George  Ber- 


VOICES  47 

nard  Shaw  has  expounded,  what 
seem  to  him,  the  defects  in  the 
deportment  of  the  British  Govern- 
ment towards  Germany.  Bernard 
would  have  thrown  a  good 
scare  into  Germany  in  time  to 
give  her  warning  of  what  to 
expect. 

Through  the  World  also  has 
come  the  liveliest  voice  of  all,  H. 
G.  Wells,  vSure  of  what  he  has  to 
say  and  saying  it  with  penetra- 
tion; sure  that  "the  monstrous 
vanity  that  was  begotten  by  the 
easy  victories  of  1870-71"  has 
come  to  its  inevitable  catastrophe ; 
sure  that  "never  was  a  war  so 
righteous  as  is  the  war  against 
Germany  now,*'  glad  it  has  come, 
glad  to  be  in  it,  and  keen  to  save 


48     THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

the  Germans  when  they  have  had 
their  Hcking. 

Twice  Wells  has  called  out  to  us. 
In  his  second  vociferation  he  is  sure 
that  the  Belgian  check  prefigures 
how  the  war  is  going,  and  proceeds 
to  the  subdivision  of  Europe  with 
a  view  first  to  save  Germany  and 
next  to  make  the  rest  of  Europe 
politically  comfortable.  He  does 
it  with  intelligence,  so  that  one 
hopes  that  when  the  Powers  get 
around  to  this  duty  of  map-mak- 
ing they  will  call  in  Mr.  Wells  and 
get  his  views. 

Of  course,  though,  there  may  not 
be  any  available  Powers  left  when 
the  fighting  stops.  In  that  case 
what's  to  hinder  Brother  Wells 
from  mending   the   map   himself! 


VOICES  49 

''A  writer  out  of  the  North," 
Tolstoi  said," is  to  have  Europe  in 
his  hand  for  ten  years!"  There's 
your  chance,  Brother  Wells. 

Mr.  Kipling  must  be  talking 
to  himself.  His  voice  at  this 
writing  is  still  inaudible.  And 
though  Chesterton  must  be  talk- 
ing, up  to  this  time  of  writing 
he  has  not  talked  over  the  cable. 
But,  heavens!  How  he  must  be 
thinking  1 


THE  DREAM   OF   DOMINATION 

OUR  President  has  solemnly 
exhorted    us    all    to   keep 
our  shirts  on  in  the  great 
existing    crisis    in    human    affairs 
and  not  to  talk  loud,  and  not  to 
be  partisan,  but   strictly  neutral. 
We  are  going  to.     We  are  sin- 
cerely   the    friends    of    all    those 
parties  who  are  scrapping.     There 
is    not   one   of  them  that  we  do 
not  yearn  to  benefit.     We  do  not 
intend   to  meddle  in  their  fight, 
except  to  help   them   stop  when 
the  time  comes,  and  to  bind  up 
what  wounds  we  can  reach,  and 
50 


THE  DREAM  OF  DOMINATION  51 

carry  food,  perhaps,  where  it  is 
needed.  But,  inasmuch  as  all  of 
us  read  and  some  of  us  think,  we 
are  bound  to  have  opinions  on  the 
merits  of  the  controversy  and 
hunches  as  to  who  ought  to  win 
and  who  is  going  to.  In  our  be- 
havior we  must  be  neutral  to  a 
hair's  breadth;  but  if  in  our  minds 
and  feelings  we  had  no  preferences 
in  such  a  conflict  and  thought  only 
of  how  it  affected  ourselves,  we 
should  be  a  good  deal  duller  and 
more  selfish  people  than  we  are. 
And  behold ;  all  of  us  but  a  little 
band  of  German-born  defenders  of 
Germany  seem  to  feel  that  it  is 
for  the  interest  of  civilization  that 
Germany  should  be  beaten  in  this 
war.     We  cannot  see  the  welfare 


52     THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

of  mankind  in  the  domination  of 
Europe  by  the  kind  of  Germany 
that  has  been  making  in  the 
last  forty  years.  In  this  country 
we  believe  in  democracy,  and  are 
committed  to  a  great  experiment 
with  it.  But  if  the  Germany  of 
Bismarck  and  the  Kaiser  is  right 
and  working  on  the  right  track  by 
the  right  means,  then  we  are  wrong 
and  proceeding  in  delusion,  and  our 
experiment  will  come  to  grief.  If 
Bismarck  and  the  Kaiser  are  right, 
blood  and  iron,  militarism  and 
autocracy,  the  strong  hand  and  the 
mailed  fist  are  the  great  tools  of 
civilization.  But  not  with  such 
tools  can  democracy  hope  to  suc- 
ceed. Its  hope  is  all  in  justice  and 
a  fair  deal,  backed,  no  doubt,  by 


THE  DREAM  OF  DOMINATION  53 

armed  men,  but  not  dependent  for 
its  prosperity  on  armed  aggression. 

What  do  we  think  of  Germans? 
Consider  what  we  think  of  them 
as  immigrants  in  this  country. 
Consider  our  anxieties  about  the 
annual  throng  of  newcomers  that 
passes  through  our  ElHs  Island 
gate.  Dubious  material  for  a 
democracy  so  many  of  them  seem. 
But  about  Germans  there  has 
never  been  a  misgiving.  They 
have  always  been  welcomed  as 
a  strengthening  stock.  Always 
wherever  there  has  been  a  settle- 
ment of  Germans  it  has  been  felt 
to  be  a  settlement  of  people  able  to 
take  care  of  themselves  and  to 
maintain,    and    in    some    respects 


54       THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

improve,  our  standards  of  life. 
Certainly  we  have  no  antipathy 
to  Germans;  no  racial  distrust  of 
them. 

But  we  do  distrust  the  leading 
that  Germany  has  had  since  1870. 
We  do  consider  that  her  people 
have  been  trained  to  follow  a  false 
ideal.  We  do  consider  that  the 
policy  of  Bismarck  corrupted  her 
moral  sense.  A  great  man  was 
Bismarck  and  a  great  deal  good, 
but  he  lied  without  scruple,  and  he 
took  for  Germany  without  scruple 
or  regard  for  justice  anything  that 
he  thought  would  do  Germany 
good.  When  he  took  Alsace  and 
Lorraine  he  overdid  the  job  and 
committed  his  unfortunate  country 
to  a  hopeless  debauch  of  militar- 


THE  DREAM  OF  DOMINATION  55 

ism.  Germany  as  we  see  it  now 
is  not  the  Germany  of  Goethe  or 
Schiller,  of  the  democrats  of  1848; 
it  is  the  Germany  of  Bismarck, 
and  of  intense  commercialism, 
and  of  success  at  any  price.  When 
Bismarck  told  in  his  memoirs  how 
he  changed  the  wording  of  the 
French  ambassador's  letter  and 
brought  on  the  war  in  1870,  it  was 
notice  given  to  mankind  that  in 
diplomatic  concerns  the  word  of 
Germany  may  not  be  trusted. 
When  the  German  troops  crossed 
the  Belgian  frontier  it  confirmed 
the  existing  impression  that  pro- 
mises of  the  German  Government 
are  only  good  so  long  as  enforce- 
able by  the  promisee.  To  Ameri- 
cans who  did  not  understand  the 


56       THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

spirit  and  morals  of  the  German 
Government,  the  invasion  of  Bel- 
gium brought  a  shock  something 
like  the  shock  that  came  two  years 
ago  when  the  Outlook  disclosed  the 
theory  of  the  three  cups  of  coffee. 
Something  important  seemed  to 
crumble.  Germany  stood  revealed 
as,  governmentally,  a  vast  and 
ruthless  commercial  organization, 
bound  by  no  scruple,  committed 
to  the  belief  that  might  is  the  only 
right,  and  ready  to  crush  and  de- 
stroy any   obstacle    in  her   path. 

Nothing  is  comparable  in  im- 
portance to  the  Germans  with  be- 
ing detached  from  that  terrible 
dream  of  domination.  Their 
teachers  and    government  seem 


THE  DREAM  OF  DOMINATION  57 

to  have  an  obsession  that  un- 
less the  Germans  take  charge 
of  the  world  and  give  orders 
to  all  its  peoples  the  world  will 
go  to  pot.  They  are  sincere, 
apparently,  in  the  belief  that  the 
Slavs  will  bite  the  head  off  of 
civilization  unless  the  German  war 
lord  can  bite  the  head  off  of 
the  Slavs.  But  the  Slavs  are  a 
numerous  and  husky  people,  fairly 
good  stock,  and  coming  along 
fast.  It  is  conceivable  that  the 
Almighty  intended  that  they,  too, 
shall  have  a  place  in  the  sun. 
There  is  lots  of  room  for  them, 
especially  in  Asia.  Why  this 
urgent  necessity  to  bite  off  their 
so  numerous  heads?  Is  it  that  the 
world  from  the  German  point  of 


58       THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

view  has  only  two  kinds  of  nations 
— those  whom  she  can  thrash,  and 
those  who  might  thrash  her?  Is 
it  an  essential  part  of  the  militar- 
istic conception  that  everybody  on 
earth  must  some  time  be  fought 
and,  if  possible,  thrashed?  Is  it 
that  terrible  obsession  that  has  left 
Germany  without  one  zealous 
friend  in  all  the  earth  and  with 
only  one  ally  in  Europe?  We 
people  of  the  United  States  seem 
to  be  the  best  friends  she  has  in  the 
world,  the  most  solicitous  for  her 
true  welfare,  the  most  anxious  to 
save  the  pieces  of  her  if  she  gets 
broken.  But  we  don't  like  her 
militarism,  nor  believe  in  her 
theory  that  the  Teuton  is  the  Only 
Hope.     It  is  no  vital  defect  in  her 


THE  DREAM  OF  DOMINATION  59 

people,  but  a  dreadful  misdirec- 
tion of  leadership  that  has  got  her, 
as  we  see  it,  into  a  war  in  which 
defeat  will  be  disaster  but  victory 
would  be  ruin.  Yes,  ruin  infalli- 
bly; for  there  is  not  room  on 
earth  for  the  Germany  of  the 
Kaiser's  hopes  and  Bismarck's 
purposes.  There  is  no  place,  no 
possible  toleration,  for  a  super- 
man nation  that  would  dominate 
mankind.  The  Germans  must  be 
content  to  be  good  people,  living 
among  good  people  and  polite  to 
them.  That  is  the  best  that  the 
future  offers  to  any  nation. 


WILL  THEY  GET  TO  PARIS? 

WITH  the  din  of  Europe 
continuously  in  our  ears 
our  poor  affairs  at  home 
get  but  a  slight  hearing.  Europe 
is  in  the  condition  of  a  village  with 
a  mad  dog  careering  up  and  down 
its  main  street.  We  read  day  by 
day,  and  many  times  a  day,  of  the 
Germans  creeping  nearer  to  Paris, 
and  wonder  if  they  will  get  there. 
When  the  Allies  stand  them  off 
somewhere  the  hearts  of  most  of 
us  rise  a  little;  when  the  Allies  get 
a  setback  our  hearts  sink.     Then 

we   feel    that    Lord   Kitchener   is 
60 


WILL  THEY  GET  TO  PARIS?     6i 

probably  right  in  forecasting  a  war 
that  will  go  over  the  winter — per- 
haps two  winters,  perhaps  three. 
What  seems  unthinkable  is  Europe 
with  the  German  foot  on  her  neck : 
Belgium  absorbed,  France  pros- 
trated and  Germanized,  England 
subdued — our  turn  to  come  next. 
Are  there  Germans  enough  to 
accomplish  that?  One  cannot 
think  it.  It  is  conceivable  that 
Paris  may  be  taken,  but  while 
England  has  a  navy  and  Russia 
an  army,  how  can  Germany  dictate 
terms  to  Europe?  Nothing  that 
she  has  accomplished  so  far  is 
incompatible  with  her  final  un- 
doing, but,  as  Kitchener  says,  it 
may  take  time. 

There  are  those  who  hold  that 


62       THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

Germany  is  unbeatable ;  that  she  is 
so  superior  in  the  military  art  and 
in  war  power  as  the  result  of  forty 
years  of  close  devotion  to  those 
details  that  she  can  go  out  and 
take  anything  she  wants  from 
nations  powerless  to  defend  their 
own  against  her.  President  G. 
Stanley  Hall,  of  Clark  University, 
in  Worcester,  has  put  this  idea  into 
words  as  clearly  as  anyone.  Ger- 
many's war  personality  now  in  con- 
trol of  her,  he  says,  is  Nietzsche's; 
a  worship  of  power,  whereof 
the  ethics  is:  "Do,  be,  get  every- 
thing you  have  the  strength  to  do. 
Pity  is  a  vice.  Evolution  means 
the  survival  of  the  fittest  and  the 
destruction  of  the  unfit.  Chris- 
tianity with  its  sympathies  for  the 


WILL  THEY  GET  TO  PARIS?     63 

poor  in  spirit  means  decadence — 
was  a  disease.  The  worid  belongs 
to  those  who  have  the  might  to  get 
it,  and  treaties,  peace-pacts,  arbi- 
tration, are  mere  points  of  strategy 
to  deceive  other  nations."  This 
philosophy.  Dr.  Hall  says,  has 
taken  a  deeper  hold  of  the  German 
mind  than  any  other  ever  has 
since  Hegel.  A  large  proportion  of 
Germany's  ablest  men  have  done 
nothing  but  study  war,  and  that 
so  secretly  that  the  other  nations 
of  Europe  have  been  taken 
unawares.  The  war,  so  far,  fol- 
lows Bernhardi's  book,  and  pro- 
bably will  to  the  end,  barring 
accidents.  No  power,  Dr.  Hall 
thinks,  could  resist  Germany's 
five  and  a  half  millions  of  armed 


64       THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

men,  trained  to  the  last  point  of 
warfare. 


Perhaps  not,  but  most  of  us 
Americans  will  live,  barring  acci- 
dents, to  see.  If  Germany's 
controlling  mind  has  been  formed 
by  Nietzsche  and  her  hands 
taught  to  make  his  theories  good, 
then  in  very  truth  a  mad  dog  is 
loose  in  the  main  street  of  Europe. 
But  what  happens  to  mad  dogs? 
They  give  the  villagers  a  frightful 
scare;  they  bring  death  to  some, 
but  in  the  end,  poor  creatures,  if 
they  are  not  killed  they  die  of  their 
disease. 

Nietzsche's  philosophy  and  mili- 
tarism are  fatal  diseases.  In  so 
far  as  Germany  has  got  them  she 


WILL  THEY  GET  TO  PARIS?     65 

will  die.     There  is  death  in  them, 
not  life. 

It  is  impossible  that  this  Niet- 
zsche rabies  runs  all  through  Ger- 
many. It  will  have  to  be  localized 
and  expelled.  Dr.  Hall's  conclu- 
sions are  not  to  his  own  liking. 
He  does  not  wish  to  see  them  come 
true,  and  if  he  is  a  prudent  man  he 
will  hedge  on  them.  If  he  can  find 
some  one  to  give  him  fair  odds 
against  the  proposition  that  the 
meek  shall  inherit  the  earth,  let 
him  bet  a  little  something  on  the 
meek.  They  are  a  much  better 
risk  than  Dr.  Hall  seems  to 
think.  A  deep  principle  of  hu- 
man life  works  for  them  im- 
mutably, and  once  they  start 
fighting  they   are   liable  to  keep 


66       THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

at  it  in  their  modest  way  for  a 
long  time. 

The  Nietzsche-Bemhardi  theory 
is  incredible  to  ordinary  people. 
They  think  it  is  a  crazy  man's 
joke.  But  once  they  learn  it  is  real, 
there  is  nothing  to  do  but  beat  it 
or  die.  Life  in  a  Nietzsche-Bern- 
hardi  world  would  not  be  worth 
living.  At  this  writing,  after  what 
the  Belgians  have  done  and  are 
doing,  and  with  what  the  French 
are  doing  for  themselves,  and  with 
what  the  stubborn  English  are 
doing  to  help  them,  and  with 
those  loud  thumps  by  Russia  at 
Germany's  back  door,  things  do 
not  seem  to  justify  Dr.  Hall's 
fears. 


WILL  THEY  GET  TO  PARIS?      67 

If  the  Germans  have  become 
detached  for  the  time  from  their 
Christian  inheritance  and  are  ac- 
tuated just  now  by  Nietzsche- 
Bernhardi  philosophy,  there  is 
no  use  of  making  so  much  re- 
monstrance about  dropping  bombs 
in  Antwerp.  Of  course  they 
will  drop  bombs  anywhere  they 
seem  likely  to  put  the  unfit  out  of 
commission.  If  they  have  gone 
back  to  first  principles  we  must 
expect  a  war  more  like  what  war 
was  before  first  principles  were 
modified.  General  Miles  says  this 
will  probably  be  the  last  great 
war.  No  doubt  it  will  be  the  last 
great  war  for  the  present.  One 
of  the  discouraging  things  about 
schools    is  that  the  instructed 


68       THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

scholars  are  continually  getting  out 
of  them  and  green  ones  coming  in. 
It  is  the  same  about  nations  and 
war.  The  generation  that  knows 
about  war  is  constantly  dying 
and  being  replaced  by  a  gener- 
ation that  has  to  be  taught.  If 
this  is  to  be  the  last  great  war  for  a 
long,  long  time  it  will  have  to  be 
followed  by  a  prodigious  rearrange- 
ment of  Europe.  And  no  doubt 
it  will  be,  however  it  comes  out. 
Meanwhile  we  have  the  German 
apologists  holding  forth  about  the 
Slav  peril,  and  the  German  armies 
using  every  means  to  kill  or  dis- 
able all  their  natural  allies  against 
the  Slav.  That  is  the  way  the 
Nietzsche  philosophy  works.  Re- 
lying solely  on  aggression,  it  im- 


WILL  THEY  GET  TO  PARIS?     69 

putes  aggressive  intentions  to  all 
its  neighbors  and  takes  such  pre- 
cautions against  them  as  to  force 
all  the  neighbors  to  band  together 
to  save  their  lives. 

Of  course  this  immense  dis- 
turbance of  the  world  is  going 
to  affect  us  in  all  our  interests 
and  in  our  politics.  Our  fiscal 
machinery  is  very  much  upset, 
our  markets  are  disarranged;  a 
great  many  of  our  workers  have 
already  lost  employment;  we  are 
going  to  see  high  prices  for  food 
and  diminution  of  the  wages  fund. 
The  great  German  workshop  for 
the  time  being  is  dead.  Nothing 
that  we  have  been  used  to  send  to 
it  can  go;  nothing  we  have  been 


70       THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

used  to  get  from  it  can  come.  The 
other  workshops  of  Europe  are 
also  very  much  disarranged  by  the 
drawing  off  of  so  many  men  to  war. 
These  considerations  will  affect 
our  politics  very  promptly.  In 
hazardous  times  partisanship  lags, 
and  folks  want  safe  men  in  charge. 
We  want  the  full  ability  of  the 
country  to  be  at  the  service  of  the 
Government,  and  a  government 
ready  to  avail  itself  of  the  full 
ability  of  the  country.  It  is  no 
time  for  selfish  politics.  The 
world  is  afire,  and  our  affair  is  to 
stand  by  with  the  best  apparatus 
we  can  supply  to  help  put  out  the 
blaze  and  save  the  burned-out 
people. 


BACKING  AWAY  FROM  PARIS 

WAR  is  our  apology  to  the 
animals  for  the  way  we 
kill  them.  When  need 
calls  hard  enough,  man  takes  his 
place  in  his  turn  in  the  line  to  the 
shambles.  The  story  of  Europe  as 
it  comes  just  now  is  too  much  like 
another  tale  of  the  stockyards  by  a 
superheated  Upton  Sinclair.  The 
part  of  an  American  citizen  con- 
tinues to  be  to  sit  in  a  chair  where 
the  breeze  can  reach  him  and 
read  about  killings.  The  reading 
is  wonderfiil,  but  the  part  is  not 
a  glorious  part,  and  one  feels 
71 


72       THE  WAR,   WEEK  BY  WEEK 

ashamed  at  times  not  to  suffer 
more  and  struggle  more  when 
anguish  and  struggle  on  such  a 
stupendous  scale  are  going  on. 

Morning,  noon,  and  night  we 
read  about  it  in  our  newspapers. 
We  are  fascinated  by  the  story,  so 
unreal,  so  portentous,  so  tremend- 
ous. Whatever  our  work  is,  it 
becomes  a  routine  that  we  go 
through  with  perfunctorily  and 
drop  when  it  is  done  to  go  back  to 
the  great  war  serial  of  which  there 
is  a  fresh  installment  twice  a  day. 
This  is  "the  Day"  which  German 
officers  in  wardrooms  of  battle- 
ships and  messrooms  of  army 
headquarters  have  stood  up  to 
drink  to  these  many  years  past. 

How  is  it  going? 


BACKING  AWAY  FROM  PARIS  73 

Not  yet,  after  forty  days  of 
fighting,  is  there  any  outcome  that 
seems  decisive  as  to  the  result. 
The  furor  Teutonicus  of  which  we 
have  had  warning  from  Professor 
Richard  has  all  its  cylinders  in 
action.  The  Germans,  said  Dr. 
Richard,  in  the  Outlook y  "are  de- 
termined to  win  at  any  cost,  and 
after  their  victory  to  leave  their 
enemies  in  such  shape  that  they 
will  never  be  able  to  disturb  the 
peace  again. "  That  expresses  the 
underlying  purpose  of  this  war — 
the  annihilation  of  all  obstacles  to 
Germany's  supremacy  in  Europe. 
What  we  learn  of  the  proceedings 
in  France  indicates  that  it  is  being 
pressed  with  an  energy  altogether 
prodigious  and  unprecedented  in 


74     THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

warfare.  But  there  is  a  counter 
movement  going  on,  not  quite 
so  energetic,  but  remarkably  reso- 
lute and  considerably  effective,  to 
leave  the  Germans  in  such  shape 
that  their  neighbors  in  Europe 
may  give  due  attention  to  the 
rational  enjoyment  of  life.  Un- 
happily, this  involves  digging  a 
vast  number  of  Germans  under  the 
ground,  and  by  the  accounts  we 
get  the  preliminaries  for  that  rem- 
edy are  being  faithfully  attended 
to.  The  Germans  have  made  a 
wonderful  advance  on  Paris,  but 
they  have  met  such  a  skillful  and 
stubborn  resistance,  and  suffered, 
apparently,  such  enormous  losses 
that  the  question  is,  how  many 
of  them  are  left?     What  we  won- 


BACKING  AWAY  FROM  PARIS  75 

der  is,  How  long  can  they  keep  it 
up,  and  can  they  finish  France 
and  England  before  Russia  btirsts 
through  their  back  door? 

Hereabouts,  frankly  enough,  we 
hope  they  can't,  and  our  opinions 
follow  our  hopes.  In  spite  of  all 
the  wonder  of  the  German  ad- 
vance, the  Germans  seem  to  us  to 
be  in  a  tighter  place  than  the 
Allies.  They  can  stand  a  wonder- 
ful lot  of  killing  while  they  last,  but 
are  there  enough  of  them?  The 
furor  Teutonicus  undoubtedly  has 
justified  Dr.  Richard's  high  opin- 
ion of  it,  but  it  cannot  re-animate 
the  dead. 

This  war  may  be  known  in  time, 
if  anyone  is  left  alive  to  write  about 


76     rilE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

it,  as  The  Great  Misunderstanding. 
Everybody  concerned  in  it  seems  to 
have  misunderstood.  The  Kaiser, 
strong  for  fattening  peace  and 
strong  in  his  conviction  that  arma- 
ment would  secure  it,  became  the 
business  partner  of  Herr  Krupp, 
and  gleaned  his  passing  profit  in 
the  making  of  guns.  His  motives 
being  misunderstood,  the  neigh- 
bors got  the  idea  that  he  was  pre- 
paring for  war,  and  all  stocked  up 
forthwith  and  kept  at  it  to  the 
limit  of  their  ability  and  beyond. 
Bismarck,  the  friend  of  Motley, 
a  great  deal  wiser  and  kindlier  man 
than,  just  now,  he  gets  credit  for 
being,  misunderstood  the  French 
when  he  supposed  that  the  defeat 
of  1870  would  set  easier  on  them  if 


BACKING  AWAY  FROM  PARIS  77 

he  relieved  them  of  the  care  of 
Alsace  and  Lorraine.  When  it 
came  to  the  pinch  about  Servia, 
the  Kaiser  and  the  war-lords  seem 
to  have  misunderstood  everybody : 
Russia  in  thinking  she  would  back 
down  if  gruffly  addressed,  Eng- 
land in  thinking  she  would  grab 
at  a  ridiculous  bribe  and  had  no 
prejudice  against  infamy,  Belgium 
in  supposing  she  would  merely 
whimper  when  trampled  on,  all  of 
Europe  and  the  rest  of  mankind  in 
entertaining  the  astonishing  idea 
that  the  nations  were  more  afraid 
of  Russia  than  of  the  Kaiser  and 
his  Krupps  and  the  furor  Teutoni- 
cus.  Was  ever  there  so  misunder- 
stood and  so  misunderstanding  a 
victim  as  the  poor  Kaiser!     Our 


78       THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

heart  bleeds  for  him.  One  would 
like  to  help  him  in  his  extremity. 
Would  he  care  to  have  a  gallant 
ex-naval  officer  who  won  renown 
once  in  a  tight  pinch  and  might 
be  useful  at  Heligoland?  Take 
him,  Kaiser!  Take  our  Hobson! 
Entirely  at  our  risk  as  to  him, 
though,  of  course,  at  your  risk  as 
to  you. 


THE   CASE   OF  THE   KAISER 

THE  chief  blame  for  the  war 
in  Europe  is  laid  here- 
abouts on  the  Kaiser. 
Maybe  that  is  just,  maybe  not, 
but  this  seems  apparent:  that, 
whether  the  Kaiser  did  right  or 
wrong,  he  did  his  duty  as  he  saw 
it.  One  may  think  he  did  terribly 
wrong  and  yet  acquit  him  of  con- 
scious fault,  of  selfishness,  of  every 
thing  but  a  misconception  of  the 
contemporary  world  and  his  part 
in  it. 

The    Kaiser    does    not   believe 
in  representative  government  for 

79 


8o     THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

Germany.  He  does  not  believe  in 
democracy,  at  least  not  for  Ger- 
many. Neither  did  Bismarck. 
Bismarck  doubtless  believed  a 
good  deal  in  Bismarck,  partly  as 
the  agent  of  the  Almighty,  partly 
as  Bismarck,  director  of  the  Ger- 
man people.  Government  of  Ger- 
many by  Bismarck  through  his 
Kaiser  was  representative  govern- 
ment of  a  sort,  for  Bismarck  in 
a  way  was  representative.  The 
Kaiser  does  not  believe  in  that. 
He  discharged  Bismarck  at  once. 
He  believes  in  government  by 
the  Kaiser  as  the  agent  divinely 
appointed  to  govern  the  German 
people.  He  is  not  responsible  to 
the  German  people  for  what  he 
does,   but  to  the  Almighty.     He 


THE  CASE  OF  THE  KAISER    8i 

believes — he  must  believe — that 
he  is  competent  to  judge  what  is 
right  for  Germany  and  that  when 
he  does  it  he  has  God  for  his  ally. 
That  goes  far  to  make  him  the 
resolute  man  that  he  is,  but  it 
makes  him  mighty  dangerous.  Of 
course  he  wants  to  do  Germany 
good,  for  he  is  a  devoted  soul,  and 
Germany  is  his  duty  and  his 
ambition.  Doubtless  he  would 
give  his  life  for  her;  give  it  cheer- 
fully. The  trouble  with  him  and 
his  theory  is  that  in  most  of  the 
affairs  of  men  many  heads  are 
better  than  one.  In  spite  of  the 
craziness  of  mobs,  in  the  long 
run,  the  sanity  of  many  minds  is 
more  durable  and  less  subject  to 
delusion  than  the   sanity   of  one 


82       THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

mind.  The  successful  kings  and 
emperors  nowadays  are  persons 
employed  by  the  people  they  nom- 
inally govern.  Some  of  the  em- 
ployed kings  are  very  valuable  and 
useful,  but  "divine  right"  rulers 
like  the  Kaiser,  however  good 
and  able  and  sincere,  are  utterly 
out  of  date  in  forward-looking 
countries  in  this  age  of  the  world. 
To  us  who  believe  and  hope  in 
democracy  the  Kaiser  seems  a 
tragedy.  He  has  hitched  his  wag- 
on to  the  wrong  star.  He  is  able, 
he  is  engaging,  he  is  likeable,  a 
good  husband,  a  dutiful  father, 
a  good  man.  He  would  have 
made  a  tip-top  Kaiser  if  only  he 
could  have  got  on  a  contemporary 
basis  with  the  German  people  and 


THE  CASE  OF  THE  KAISER    83 

realized  that  they  should  be  his 
boss  and  not  he  theirs.  Employed 
by  them  he  might  be  useful,  for 
they  like  him  and  he  them,  but  an 
autocratic  ruler  for  such  a  people 
as  the  modern  Germans  is  an 
anachronism,  and  the  probable  fate 
of  the  Kaiser  is  to  prove  it  so. 
The  great  destructive  machine 
which  he  has  spent  his  strength  to 
perfect  has  got  away  from  him, 
and  is  doing  its  appointed  work  of 
devastation.  Where  he  will  be, 
or  in  what  case,  when  its  wheels 
cease  to  turn  no  one  can  foretell. 


A    COMPLAINT     FROM     THE     KAISER 

THE  complaintof  the  German 
Kaiser  to  our  Mr.  Wilson 
about  the  thousands  of 
dum-dum  bullets  found  in  the 
French  fort  of  Longwy  affords 
affecting  evidence  of  the  Kaiser*s 
disposition  to  swallow  what  is 
handed  to  him.  This  is  the 
Kaiser's  first  considerable  war, 
and  having  had  probably  little 
practice  in  separating  true  news 
from  false,  he  doubtless  believes 
that  all  his  good  Germans  have 
been  behaving  like  gentlemen,  and 
that  the  Belgians,  French,  and 
84 


THE  KAISERS  COMPLAINT   85 

British  have  done  many  repre- 
hensible naughtinesses.  In  this 
country,  where  our  minds  are 
newspaper-fed,  and  where  to  cut  a 
pack  of  lies  and  turn  up  the  truth 
is  an  exploit  done  instinctively  and 
repeatedly  in  the  course  of  the  day's 
reading,  we  have  learned  to  take  all 
reports  of  atrocities  in  war  with 
allowances.  Consider  our  recent 
war  in  Colorado,  and  the  incident 
of  the  militia  and  the  burning  of 
the  miner's  camp.  The  various 
versions  of  that  story  contradict 
one  another  just  as  the  versions  of 
the  story  of  Lou  vain  do. 

If  Mr.  Wilson  should  reply  to 
the  Kaiser's  remonstrance,  "Well, 
Kaiser,  everybody's  doin'  it,"  that 
would  indicate  one  way  to  deal  with 


86       THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

atrocity  stories.  Either  believe  all 
you  read  from  both  sides  or  else 
reject  all.  But  to  believe  all  the 
tales  of  German  cruelties  and  re- 
ject all  the  tales  of  anti-German 
cruelties  is  not  intelligent.  War 
is  terribly  cruel.  It  lets  loose 
hordes  of  men,  the  bulk  of  whom 
are  humane  but  including  many 
who  are  not  htimane.  Moreover, 
war  excites  and  intensifies  the 
passions,  and  may  brutalize  even 
the  kindly.  It  is  not  incredible 
that  Belgian  peasants,  infuriated 
by  their  sufferings,  took  dreadful 
vengeance  on  wounded  Germans. 
And,  of  course,  it  is  not  incredible 
that  some  Germans  took  terrible 
vengeance  on  helpless  Belgians. 
When  five  or  six  million  men  are 


THE  KAISER'S  COMPLAINT  87 

practicing  to  kill  one  another,  why 
bother  about  these  details  or  fret 
because  some  women  and  children 
and  other  non-combatants  are 
killed?  It  is  the  war  that  is  terri- 
ble, not  these  poor,  dreadful  inci- 
dents of  it.  To  try  to  make  war 
nice  is  poppy-cock.  After  we 
have  read  of  trenches  filled  and 
fields  heaped  with  dead  young 
Germans  at  Liege,  and  with  Ger- 
mans and  Frenchmen  and  English- 
men along  a  line  two  hundred 
miles  wide  from  Liege  to  Paris, 
this  protest  from  the  Kaiser  about 
dum-dum  bullets  sounds  like  a 
joke. 

The  poor  Kaiser!     The  papers 
quote    the    late    British    General 


88       THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

Grierson,  who  had  been  military 
attache  at  BerHn,  as  saying  of 
him:  "He's  all  right;  he's  a  gentle- 
man. But  those  around  him  are 
perfectly  poisonous." 

Just  how  much  hand,  immedi- 
ately and  personally,  the  Kaiser 
had  in  bringing  on  the  war  is  not 
known  yet,  but  a  theory  that  com- 
mends itself  to  credulity  holds  the 
poisonous  Prussian  war  party  re- 
sponsible for  getting  Germany  into 
this  war  while  the  Kaiser  was  off 
on  his  summer  holiday  in  Norway. 
The  proceedings  as  to  the  stiffening 
of  Austria's  backbone  in  her  deal- 
ings with  Servia  were  doubtless 
agreed  upon  before  the  Kaiser  left 
his  capital.  Austria  was  to  mobi- 
lize against  Servia,   but  it  seems 


THE  KAISER'S  COMPLAINT    89 

to  have  been  expected,  and  there 
seems  to  have  been  a  supposition 
that  it  had  been  arranged  that 
Russia  would  do  nothing  more  than 
protest  in  Servia's  behalf.  But 
when  Russia  fooled  this  expecta- 
tion by  mobilizing,  the  Kaiser  was 
away,  and  then,  apparently,  the 
Crown  Prince  and  all  the  fire- 
eaters  rushed  matters  so  hard  that 
before  the  Kaiser  could  get  back 
the  country  was  committed  to  fight 
Russia.  That  meant  France,  too, 
and  then,  to  Germany's  horror, 
England  joined  them,  leaving 
German  diplomacy  flat  on  its  back 
and  the  war  squad  in  control  of 
everything. 

If  that  is  a  true  story,  and  the 
Kaiser    was    thus    caught    in   the 


90       THE  WAR,   WEEK  BY  WEEK 

machinery  he  has  so  labored  to 
create,  still  it  was  his  machinery 
that  caught  him,  and  it  all  only 
illustrates  the  saying  that  those 
who  live  by  the  sword  shall  perish 
by  the  sword. 

The  war  news  at  this  writing  is 
all  of  a  successful  stand  by  the 
Allies  in  France  on  the  line  from 
Paris  to  Verdun,  and  the  driving 
back  of  the  Germans.  But  we 
only  know  generally  what  is  going 
on.  It  is  fight,  fight,  fight;  a 
tremendous  engagement  of  huge 
armies  along  a  long  line,  with 
apparent  advantage  for  the  Allies. 
If  the  defenders  merely  hold  their 
own  in  this  fighting  they  are  ahead. 
For  the  Germans  to  hold  their  own 


THE  KAISERS  COMPLAINT    91 

is  not  enough.     They  must  con- 
quer or  get  out. 

All  the  forecasts  of  students  and 
predictions  of  prophets,  seers,  wiz- 
ards, witches,  holy  men,  clairvoy- 
ants, and  sooth-sayers  have  been 
widely  published  and  have  made 
interesting  reading  of  late.  We  all 
want  to  see  a  little  farther  ahead 
than  the  unaided  vision  can  pene- 
trate. Some  attractive  long-dis- 
tance prophecies  have  set  Nov- 
ember as  the  month  in  which  the 
Kaiser  is  to  lose  his  empire.  That 
may  follow,  of  course,  if  this  enor- 
mous battle  between  Paris  and 
Verdun  goes  decisively  against  the 
the  invaders  and  the  Russian  suc- 
cesses continue. 


92       THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

There  is  a  pious  beauty  about 
the  phrasing  of  the  Httle  proclama- 
tion in  which  President  Wilson  calls 
upon  "all  God-fearing  persons" 
to  pray  on  October  4th  for  the 
restoration  of  peace  in  Europe. 
It  reads  like  a  collect  out  of  the 
Episcopal  prayer-book.  Europe's 
needs  are  urgent.  It  is  to  be 
hoped  that  she  will  not  be  past 
praying  for  on  the  first  Sunday 
in  October. 


THE    PATHOS   OF   THE   GERMANS 

NO  doubt  in  our  character  as 
neutrals  we  ought  to  be 
as  sorry  as  we  can  for 
everybody  involved  in  the  great 
war,  without  stopping  to  be  over- 
nice  in  apportioning  blame;  sorry 
for  the  Kaiser  because  he  has  been 
caught  in  his  machinery;  sorry  for 
France  and  England  and  Germany 
because,  being  considerably  civil- 
ized, they  should  not  be  under  the 
terrible  cost  and  inconvenience  of 
battling  with  one  another;  sorry 
for   the    Serbs,    and   for   Austria 

93 


94     THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

because  she  is  such  a  back  number; 
sorry  most  of  all  for  the  gallant 
Belgians  who  have  suffered  so 
much,  and  least  perhaps  for  Rus- 
sia whom  nothing  can  hurt  very 
deep  and  whose  chances  of  gain 
are  biggest  in  proportion  to  what 
she  risks. 

And  coming  to  particulars,  we 
ought  especially  to  be  sorry  for  the 
Germans.  As  we  see  them  to-day 
they  are  a  pathetic  people.  Ger- 
many has  set  up  to  be  the  bully 
of  Europe,  and  a  bully,  when  one 
has  got  over  being  mad  at  him, 
is  always  pathetic.  Bullies  are 
always  stupid.  At  the  bottom  of 
their  proceedings  is  inability  to 
understand  something  very  import- 
ant to  be  understood.     They  are 


PATHOS  OF  THE  GERMANS    95 

people  who,  seeing  no  chance  to 
get  what  they  want  by  favor,  are 
constantly  tempted  to  try  to  get 
what  they  can  by  force. 

That  seems  to  be  the  case  with 
the  Germans.  They  have  enor- 
mous merit  of  a  most  substantial 
kind,  and  it  has  brought  them 
huge  and  well-earned  gains;  but 
when  it  comes  to  getting  anything 
by  favor  there  is  nothing  com- 
ing to  them.  In  his  present  stage 
of  development,  the  German  is 
the  fat  man  of  Europe  whom  no- 
body loves.  Individual  Germans 
are  beloved,  of  course,  but  the 
typical  German  not.  A  writer  in 
the  Outlook  J  an  American  of  Ger- 
man parentage,  writing  in  defense 
of  his  brethren,  explains  the  uni- 


96     THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

versal    distaste    for    Germans   in 
Europe  by  saying: 

"The  average  German,  whom 
the  foreigner  sees,  is  aggressive, 
self-assertive,  loud  in  his  manner 
and  talk,  inconsiderate,  petty, 
pompous,  dictatorial,  without  hu- 
mor; in  a  word,  bumptious.  He 
has,  in  many  cases,  exceedingly  bad 
table  manners  and  an  almost  gross 
enjoyment  of  his  food ;  and  he  talks 
about  his  ailments  and  his  under- 
wear. His  attitude  toward  wom- 
en, moreover,  is  likely  to  be  over- 
gallant  if  he  knows  them  a  little 
and  not  too  well,  and  discourteous 
or  even  insolent  if  he  is  married  to 
them  or  does  not  know  them  at  all. 
He  is  at  his  worst  at  the  time  when 
he  is  most  on  exhibition,  when  he 
is  on  his  travels  or  helping  other 


PATHOS  OF  THE  GERMANS    97 

people  to  travel,  as  ticket-chopper 
or  customs  official." 


This  German  apologist  knows 
that  underneath  bad  manners 
which  the  German  does  not  know 
are  bad  are  some  of  the  greatest 
and  best  of  human  qualities,  but 
casual  observers  don't  like  the 
manners  and  naturally  don't  like 
the  man;  so  Germans,  apparently, 
have  been  taught  that  every  hand 
in  Europe  is  against  them,  and 
that  they  must  always  expect  to 
fight  for  what  they  get  and  thrash 
all  comers.  Hence  militarism  and 
all  the  troubles  that  follow  it. 

A  little  while  ago  English  man- 
ners were  just  as  ill  thought  of, 


98     THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

and  doubtless  with  just  as  good 
reason,  as  German  manners  are 
now;  but  English  manners  seem 
to  have  improved.  American 
tourist  manners  do  not  edify  all 
foreign  observers,  but  bad  man- 
ners in  our  tourists  do  not  have 
political  consequences.  Refine- 
ment usually  comes  with  pros- 
perity, and  has  come  abundantly 
to  Germans  in  the  United  States. 
German  prosperity  at  home  has 
mostly  come  within  the  last  thirty 
years,  and  probably  it  would  in 
time  have  brought  manners  in  its 
train,  and  possibly  as  Germans 
grew  to  be  more  generally  accep- 
table they  would  have  emerged 
from  this  terrible  idea  that  they 
must    thrash    all    the    world    in 


PATHOS  OF  THE  GERMANS    99 

order  to  get  their  place    in    the 
sun. 

When  prosperity  will  resume  its 
refining  course  among  the  Germans 
in  Germany  heaven  knows,  but  is 
not  their  situation  sincerely  pa- 
thetic? Not  only  are  the  manners 
of  ordinary  Germans  open  to  such 
regretful  criticism  as  above  quoted, 
but  the  example  set  to  ordinary 
Germans  by  their  superiors  in 
rank  and  power  seems  far  from 
helpful.  Professor  Newbold,  of 
Philadelphia,  who  fled  through 
Germany  the  other  day,  is  quoted 
in  the  papers  as  saying : 

"The  war  was  caused  by  a  little 
group  of  military  men  who  aim 
at    the    conquest    of    the    world. 


loo  THE  WAR,   WEEK  BY  WEEK 

They  are  the  most  offensive  people 
I  have  ever  met.  They  are  re- 
sponsible to  no  one  for  their  ac- 
tions and  they  lit  the  fuse." 

But  as  to  the  mass  of  ordinary 
Germans  whom  he  saw,  he  says: 

*'I  never  before  saw  such  despair 
and  misery  written  on  the  faces 
of  people  as  I  saw  in  Germany 
when  war  was  declared.  They 
felt  and  looked  as  though  the  end 
of  the  world  had  come." 

Be  sorry  for  the  Germans. 
They  are  in  for  a  terrible  time. 
At  the  bottom  they  are  good  and 
extremely  able  and  valuable  peo- 
ple, but  they  have  been  tied  up  to 
a  wrong  conception  of  what  rules 
our  modern  world.     If  the  war  rids 


PATHOS  OF  THE  GERMANS  loi 

them  of  the  domination  of  **  mili- 
tary men  who  aim  at  the  conquest 
of  the  world,"  there  is  no  reason 
why  they  should  not  grow  in  favor; 
but  no  country  that  all  the  others 
fear  can  hope  to  be  popular  in  a 
modern  world. 


A  FOUNDLING 

THIS  is  distinctly  a  foundling 
war  that  is  going  on  in 
Europe.  Nobody  is  will- 
ing to  father  it.  One  after  another 
the  nations  concerned  have  stood 
up  and  made  formal  declaration 
that  it  was  no  war  of  theirs,  but 
an  unwelcome  charge  left  on  their 
doorstep.  It  will  take  court  pro- 
ceedings to  trace  its  paternity,  but 
persons  who  have  duly  read  the 
papers,  white  and  other  kinds, 
incline  strongly  to  the  suspicion 
that  the  war  is  the  love-child  of  the 
German   General    Staff.     Nobody 

102 


A   FOUNDLING  103 

else  in  Europe  seems  to  have 
wanted  it,  not  even  the  Kaiser. 
The  story  that  the  Staff  fooled  him 
with  a  story  that  the  Russians — or 
was  it  the  French? — had  crossed 
his  frontier  is  just  such  another 
tale  as  that  of  Bismarck  and  the 
Kaiser's  grandpa,  and  sounds  so 
likely  that  we  hope  that  in  due  time 
the  German  people  will  take  the 
matter  up  with  their  General  Staff 
and  get  the  rights  of  it.  If  they 
conclude  that  the  war  was  a  mis- 
take for  them  and  that  the  Staff 
got  them  into  it  on  false  pretenses, 
to  hang  so  many  of  the  Staff  as 
they  can  catch  would  seem  not  to 
be  out  of  the  way. 

And  perhaps  there  are  professors 
left  alive  in  Germany  with  whom 


104  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

some  settlement  may  be  in  pros- 
pect. When  one  considers  what 
this  war  is  for,  the  answer  here- 
abouts is  that  it  is  to  correct  cer- 
tain obsessions  that  have  grown 
up  in  the  German  mind  as  a  conse- 
quence of  wicked  and  erroneous 
philosophy  and  teaching.  The 
gospel  of  force,  of  assault,  of  rob- 
bery, has  been  preached  openly 
and  effectively  in  Germany  for  a 
generation.  Nietzsche  preached  it 
until  his  madness  became  uncon- 
trollable, and  Treitschke,  Von 
Sybel,  Von  Bernhardi,  and  heaven 
knows  how  many  others.  They 
got  it  into  the  more  or  less  innocent 
German  head  that  it  belonged  to 
the  Germans  to  dominate  the  rest 
of  mankind.     To  get  that  idea  out 


A  FOUNDLING  105 

of  the  German  head,  out  utterly 
and  permanently,  is  what  this 
great  war  is  primarily  about. 

Secondarily,  it  is  a  war  against 
the  whole  idea  of  militarist  domin- 
ation; a  war  against  brute  force;  a 
war  to  keep  the  terrible  obsession 
that  has  brought  Germany  and  all 
Europe  to  so  dreadful  a  pass  from 
lodging  in  the  mind  of  any  other 
people  for  some  time  to  come.  It 
is  not  a  war  of  the  English  to 
crush  German  trade ;  not  primarily 
a  war  of  the  French  to  get  back 
their  lost  provinces;  not  a  war 
of  the  Belgians  to  conquer  Ger- 
many; not  a  war  of  Russia  to  get 
Constantinople;  not  a  war  of  any- 
body for  any  detail  of  trade,  or 
revenge,  or  advantage,  but  a  war 


io6  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

of  all  hands  to  destroy  militarism 
and  the  gospel  of  force,  and  bring 
peace  and  equity  back  into  the 
world. 

It  is  a  terrible  job  to  beat  the 
gospel  of  force  and  make  peace 
universally  popular.  This  present 
try  at  it  seems  to  be  going  along 
as  well  as  could  be  expected.  The 
Nietzscheans  are  still  extremely 
efficient.  Rheims  Cathedral,  bat- 
tered and  burned,  now  attests, 
along  with  Louvain,  their  savage 
competence  in  destruction.  Cer- 
tainly the  Vandals  and  the  Huns 
had  nothing  on  the  Germans  as 
destroyers  of  the  monuments  of 
beauty  and  of  piety.  Beaten  back 
on  the  Marne,  the  Kaiser^s  troops 


A   FOUNDLING  107 

are  making,  at  this  writing,  a  for- 
midable stand  on  the  Aisne,  where 
there  has  been  a  week's  fighting, 
but  as  yet  without  decisive  miH- 
tary  results. 

The  German  rush  is  over,  the 
Allies,  having  managed,  like  good 
shoppers,  to  avoid  or  survive  it, 
are  at  it  now,  ding-dong,  to  get  the 
idea  of  conquest  out  of  the  obsti- 
nate German  head,  preparatory  to 
introducing  there  some  less  danger- 
ous conceptions  of  the  duty  and 
destiny  of  man.  There  seems  to 
be  going  on  a  vast  killing  of  men  in 
France,  not  to  mention  the  whole- 
sale operations  in  that  line  which 
we  hear  of  on  the  other  side  of 
Germany.  Truly  a  bad  philoso- 
phy   is    a   very  fatal    thing  and 


io8  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

desperately  hard  to  eradicate.  If 
missionaries  could  have  converted 
Germany  to  the  paths  of  peace, 
that  woiild  have  been  the  thriftier 
way,  but  what  could  missionaries 
have  done  when  a  large  proportion 
of  the  Germans  are  abundantly 
religious  and  suppose  that  they  are 
Christians  already,  and  the  rest 
don't  want  to  be? 

Suggestions  of  peace  have  been 
made  to  our  President,  but  amount 
to  nothing  as  yet.  Neither  side  is 
ready  for  them.  The  talk  is  still 
of  a  pretty  long  war  in  which 
settlement  will  be  reached  by  pro- 
cesses of  exhaustion.  When  it 
comes  to  that,  the  feeling  of  the 
Allies  is  that  England  and  France 


A  FOUNDLING  109 

with  control  of  the  sea  can  stand 
more  of  it  than  harbor-bound 
Germany  can;  while  Russia  is 
inexhaustible.  That  is  dreadful 
sounding  talk,  but,  of  course,  it  is 
a  hard  job  to  get  the  poison  of  a 
rotten  philosophy  out  of  the  heads 
of  a  strong,  obstinate,  and  very 
numerous  people.  Some  devils 
come  out,  as  the  Scripture  says, 
only  by  prayer  and  fasting.  We 
are  going  to  try  prayer  on  a  large 
scale  on  October  4th,  and  with 
fasting  there  has  been  much  experi- 
ment in  the  field  already,  with 
very  much  more  extended  tests  in 
prospect  if  the  war  continues  long. 

Only   long-distance    predictions 
of    this    war's    results    have    any 


no  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

chance  as  yet.  It  has  gone  far 
enough  now  to  prove  that  no  one 
is  to  have  an  easy  victory.  The 
AlHes  on  the  defensive  seem  able  to 
stand  off  the  Germans;  the  Ger- 
mans on  the  defensive  seem  able 
to  stand  off  the  Allies.  It  looks 
as  though  the  German  invasion 
of  France  was  a  failure,  but  the 
German  defense  of  Germany,  if  it 
comes  to  that,  promises  to  be  a 
very  hard  nut  for  the  Allies  to 
crack.  That  is  one  thing  that 
gives  gravity  to  the  talk  of  a  long 
war. 

But  speculation  about  these 
immediate  details  is  futile.  The 
mind  dwells  rather  on  the  ultimate 
result  to  mankind  of  these  tremen- 
dous    forces    of    disarrangement. 


A  FOUNDLING  iii 

The  most  fantastic  prophecies,  like 
Tolstoi's  vision  and  that  queer 
seventeenth  century  prediction 
put  out  by  Figaro  J  get  attention 
because  they  range  so  far  ahead. 
The  future  of  the  world  has  not, 
for  a  century  at  least,  been  so 
utterly  uncertain.  It  is  as  Mr. 
Root  said  the  other  day  at  Ham- 
ilton College: 

**  This  dreadful  war,  with  its  ter- 
rible destruction  and  misery,  marks 
the  end  of  an  epoch  and  the  begin- 
ning of  a  new  day  for  the  world. 
No  man  can  tell  just  what  the  end 
will  be.  We  are  on  the  threshold 
of  that  new  day  in  which  the 
associations  of  men  are  taking  new 
forms  and  new  opportunities  and 
are  leaving  behind  everything  that 
has  gone  before." 


112  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

That  is  the  point.  Behind  this 
awful  cloud  that  obscures  Europe 
there  is  something  like  a  new  hea- 
ven and  a  new  earth,  and  we  want 
to  know  what  they  will  be  like. 
This  is  not  a  war  of  hatreds. 
Hatreds  may  be  bred  in  it,  have 
been  bred  in  it,  especially  in  Bel- 
gium— but  they  did  not  cause  it. 
What  caused  it  was  fears  and 
obsessions.  It  is  all  a  dreadful 
cautery  of  life  to  get  the  madness 
out  of  it.  It  even  seems  as  if  the 
nations  that  have  kept  out  of  it, 
especially  Italy,  are  half  anxious 
to  get  in  for  fear  they  will  miss 
the  treatment. 

Maurice  Maeterlinck,  a  Belgian, 
says  the  Belgians  must  not  forget 


A  FOUNDLING  113 

their  terrible  experiences  nor  feel 
presently  that,  after  all,  the  mass 
of  Germans  may  not  be  so  bad. 
"We  must  be  pitiless,"  he  says; 
"the  Germans  are  guilty  in  the 
mass ;  they  did  what  it  was  in  them, 
and  always  will  be  in  them,  to  do; 
they  must  be  destroyed  like  wasps. 
Let  there  come  a  thousand  years 
of  civilization,  of  peace,  with  all 
refinements,  the  German  spirit 
will  remain  absolutely  the  same 
as  to-day,  and,  given  opportunity, 
would  declare  itself  tmder  the  same 
aspect  and  with  the  same  infamy. " 

Maurice  seems  to  be  a  good  deal 
stirred  up.  Probably  he  has  been 
to  Louvain.  But  to  destroy  the 
Germans  is  too  large  a  contract. 

Moreover,  this  idea  that  a  whole 


114  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

race  of  men  s  incurably  impossible, 
though  excusable  in  Maeterlinck 
for  the  moment,  is  a  very  mis- 
chievous idea.  It  is  cousin  to  the 
idea  the  Germans  seem  to  have 
cultivated  about  the  Slav,  and  to 
their  further  notion  that  the  Teu- 
ton is  the  Only  Hope.  But  "Teu- 
ton" in  the  German  mind  includes 
all  the  races  of  Northern  Europe — 
British,  French,  Belgian,  Dutch, 
Scandinavian,  Celt,  and  even  Slav 
itself,  unless  it  is  too  much  mixed 
with  infusions  from  Asia.  The 
Germans  have  not  professed  a 
pious  purpose  to  destroy  even  the 
Slavs  "like  wasps,"  and  as  to  the 
Belgians,  their  professions  about 
them  were  most  polite.  All  the 
Germans  want  of  the  Belgians  is 


A  FOUNDLING  115 

complete  control  of  their  country 
and  their  great  port.  They  have 
not  professed  yet  to  see  a  need  to 
exterminate  the  Belgians.  Ger- 
manized and  subjected  to  the 
direction  and  discipline  of  the 
German  military  caste,  the  Bel- 
gians might  look  pretty  good  to 
Germany. 

Of  course  that  is  what  gives 
intensity  to  Maeterlinck's  wrath 
and  gives  extension  to  the  senti- 
ment that  when  the  final  settle- 
ment comes  Belgiimi  ought  to  have 
Berlin. 

The  wonderful  rush  of  the  Ger- 
man armies  from  Belgium  to  Paris 
was  immensely  instructive.  So 
were  the  reports  of  the  exhaustion 
of  the  German  troops  when  they 


li6     THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

had  reached  the  side-lines  of  Paris 
and  had  to  begin  to  retreat. 

A  terrible,  terrible  thing  is  the 
furor  Teiitonicus;  dangerous  to  all 
comers,  but  especially  to  Teutons. 
What  will  the  survivors  of  those 
driven  battalions  of  Germany 
think  about  it  when  they  get 
home?  They  have  seen  the  Juror 
Teutonicus  at  work;  they  have  felt 
the  drive  of  it;  they  have  been 
subject  to  the  orders  of  the  agents 
of  it;  have  been  goaded  by  their 
swords,  lashed  sometimes  across 
their  faces  by  their  whips.  They 
have  seen  German  lives  spent  as 
lives  have  never  been  spent  before 
in  Western  Europe.  They  will 
know  the  terrible  futility  of  that 
expenditure.       What     will     they 


A  FOUNDLING  117 

think  of  the  fiiror  Teutonicus,  of 
militarism,  of  government  by  a 
caste? 

Can  they  think?  Can  the  com- 
mon Germans  think?  Or  has  the 
power  to  think  been  thrashed  out 
of  them  under  miHtary  discipHne? 


THE   UNSCRAMBLING   OF   EUROPE 

THE  interesting  thing  ahead 
when  the  fighting  is  fin- 
ished is  the  unscrambling 
of  Eiirope.  The  German  mind 
takes  no  account  of  it.  It  is  all  for 
making  Europe  a  great  German 
trust,  capitalized  high  enough  to 
give  a  huge  profit  on  the  war,  full 
of  subsidiaries,  and  with  "com- 
mon" and  "preferred"  and  the 
other  trimmings.  The  German 
idea  is  to  do  all  that  by  main 
strength  and  then  keep  it  done  by 
main  strength.  The  plan  has  all 
the  charms  that  made  the  argu- 

Ii8 


UNSCRAMBLING  OF  EUROPE  119 

ment  for  our  big  trusts — economy 
and  efficiency  of  administration, 
capacity  to  do  large  things  on  a 
large  scale,  and  all  that.  All  the 
small,  independent  concerns  of 
Europe  would  be  incorporated  into 
the  big  German  trust,  and  made 
fabiilously  profitable  to  the  owners 
by  a  perfected  organization  and 
the  extirpation  of  competition. 
No  more  Belgium,  no  more  Hol- 
land, no  Switzerland,  as  little 
England  as  possible,  a  pared-down 
France,  and  a  grand,  gigantic  Ger- 
many. 

But  the  English  idea  seems  to  be 
quite  different. 

"  We  want  this  war  to  settle  the 
map  of  Europe  on  national  lines 
and  according  to  the  true  wishes  of 


120  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

the  people  who  dwell  in  the  dis- 
puted areas. 

"After  all  the  blood  that  is  being 
shed  we  want  a  natural  and  har- 
monious settlement  which  liber- 
ates races,  restores  the  integrity  of 
nations,  subjugates  no  one  and 
permits  a  genuine  and  lasting 
relief  from  the  waste  and  tension 
of  armaments  under  which  we 
suffered  so  long." 

So  Winston  Churchill,  first 
Lord  of  the  Admiralty,  and  what 
he  says  is  a  proper  sentiment  for 
England  who  cannot  hope  to  oc- 
cupy this  world  by  her  unaided 
force,  and  has  need  of  contented 
neighbors  to  work  with.  Part  of 
the  great  problem  will  be  to  devise 
due  possibilities  of  contentment 
for   all   the   Germans   except   the 


UNSCRAMBLING  OF  EUROPE  121 

military  caste,  and  not  even  that 
can  the  AlHes  shirk.  There  will 
be  sixty-odd  million  very  valuable 
Germans  left  when  the  war  is 
over,  and  that  is  far  too  many 
people  to  be  left  with  punctured 
hopes  or  without  a  satisfying 
vision  of  the  future.  Somehow 
matters  must  be  handled  so  that 
in  twenty  years  Germans  will  say: 
"After  all,  it  was  a  good  war  for 
us.  It  delivered  us  from  militar- 
ism and  Pan-Germanism  and  left 
us  free  to  live  and  work  and  trade 
in  a  world  no  longer  unfriendly.** 

This  war  is  an  enormous  process 
of  civilization,  and  it  is  as  a  process 
that  we  should  look  at  it — a  pro- 
cess that  came  inevitably  out  of 


122  THE  WAR,   WEEK  BY  WEEK 

the  preparations  made  for  it  and 
the  defects  in  the  world -arrange- 
ment that  preceded  it.  We  ought 
to  feel  confident  that  out  of  all 
the  killing  and  destruction  that  is 
going  on,  ideas  and  considerations 
and  concessions  will  come  to  birth 
that  will  be  worth  the  terrible  cost 
and  anguish  of  the  accouchement. 
There  is  a  German  point  of  view 
that,  with  all  its  unconscionable 
terrors  and  brutalities  and  its 
dreadful  entanglement  with  mili- 
tarism and  the  gospel  of  force  and 
Prussian  Junkerism,  is  not  all  non- 
sense. These  Germans  that  are 
being  killed  by  regiments  ought 
to  be  carrying  their  civilization  to 
the  parts  of  the  world  that  need  it, 
As  far  as  it  goes,  it  is  a  wonderful 


UNSCRAMBLING  OF  EUROPE  123 

civilization,  and  the  made-over 
world  that  is  coming  must  provide 
markets  for  all  that  is  good  in  it. 
For  that  matter,  the  world  that 
was  before  the  first  of  August  was 
open  enough,  amply  open,  to  the 
German  civilization.  It  was  only 
closed  to  German  sovereignty, 
which  could  not  spread  except  by 
trespassing  on  premises  already  in 
hands  competent  to  resist  tres- 
pass. German  civilization  was  wel- 
come almost  everywhere.  German 
sovereignty  was  welcome  almost 
nowhere  outside  of  Germany. 
That  it  will  be  any  more  welcome 
after  the  war  does  not  seem  at  all 
likely,  but  with  the  fear  of  Ger- 
man sovereignty  dissipated,  Ger- 
man   civilization — meaning    effi- 


124  THE  WAR,   WEEK  BY  WEEK 

ciency,  patience,  and  order — may 
be  more  welcome  in  the  earth  than 
ever. 

Meanwhile  it  is  all  the  prelimi- 
nary details  of  the  process  that 
interest  us;  the  details  of  the 
fighting.  That  goes  on  at  this 
writing  on  the  line  of  the  Aisne 
with  desperate  fervency.  The 
Allies  refuse  to  be  beaten;  so  do 
the  Germans.  The  butcher's  bill 
grows  and  grows;  we  know  little 
about  it,  and  cannot  think  much 
about  it  yet,  because  of  the  inten- 
sity of  our  concern  about  the  issue. 
Clearly,  the  great  plan  to  over- 
whelm France  by  a  sudden  on- 
slaught is  a  failure.  If  the  invad- 
ers are  to  possess  France  they  will 


UNSCRAMBLING  OF  EUROPE  125 

have  to  earn  and  pay  for  every 
yard  of  it.  But  there  is  no  pros- 
pect that  they  will  possess  it. 
The  Germans  on  the  Aisne  are 
fighting  for  dear  life,  and  all  the 
time  the  rapping  on  the  back  doors 
of  Berlin  grows  louder,  and  winter 
is  coming  on.  Terrible  stories 
come  and  persist  about  German 
atrocities  in  Belgium,  including  out- 
rage and  mutilation  of  women.  A 
letter  published  in  the  Sun,  written 
to  Harold  M.  Sewall,  of  Bath, 
Maine,  is  explicit  and  convincing 
as  to  this  latter  point.  This 
dreadful  development  of  morbid 
brutishness  is  perhaps  a  detail  of 
the  furor  Teutonicus  against  which 
Professor  Ernst  Richard  so  lately 
warned  the  world.     It  must  make 


126  THE  WAR,   WEEK  BY  WEEK 

direful    reading    for   the    German 
apologists. 

The  more  thoughtful  people 
have  had  no  real  vacation  this 
year.  August  is  the  vacation 
month,  and  since  August  first  we 
have  all  been  to  school  every  day, 
Sundays  included,  learning  the 
military  art  and  the  history  and 
geography  of  Europe.  Among 
other  things,  we  have  fought  over 
again  the  chief  battles  of  our  own 
Civil  War  for  our  better  under- 
standing of  the  proceedings  in 
France.  There  has  been  no  peace, 
no  rest.  Where  we  have  not  been 
harrowed  by  enormous  battles,  vast 
destruction,  and  huge  mortality, 
we  have  been  ruminating  about  the 


UNSCRAMBLING  OF  EUROPE  127 

immediate  future  of  mankind.  It 
is  as  though  all  bets  were  declared 
off  and  all  precedents  became  in- 
valid on  August  first,  and  a  new 
time  began  on  that  date,  to  which 
the  calculations  that  had  come  to 
be  our  habit  no  longer  applied. 
The  jar  of  this  transition  is  enor- 
mous, even  here,  where  we  are 
shielded  by  distance  from  the 
griefs  and  material  distress  that 
accompany  it.  Our  friends  are 
not  dead,  nor  in  special  peril; 
no  consuming  disaster  hangs  over 
us,  and  yet  most  of  us  Americans 
are  depressed,  some  consciously, 
some  without  knowing  why.  You 
can't  read  war  and  think  war  all 
the  time  for  two  months  without 
feeling  the  strain  of  it. 


128  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

No;  thoughtful  people  this 
year  got  only  so  much  real  vaca- 
tion   as    they    had    in  June   and 

July. 


LET  US  TURN  OUT  OUR  POCKETS 

WE  ought  to  get  into  this 
European  war  harder. 
Since  it  is  not  proposed 
that  we  shall  fight  in  it,  we  ought 
to  get  into  the  rescue  work  with 
more  power.  Some  of  us  are  doing 
something,  but  most  of  us  are 
doing  nothing  and  not  enough  is 
being  done.  Not  enough  money 
is  coming  out  for  the  Belgians, 
whose  terrible  plight  is  so  pro- 
foundly appealing.  Not  enough 
for  the  Red  Cross.  One  trouble  is 
that  we  have  war  troubles  of  our 
own;  that  because  of  upsets,  due 

9  129 


130  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

to  war,  in  many  lines  of  business, 
an  unusual  proportion  of  our  own 
people  are  in  more  or  less  pecu- 
niary distress.  Another  trouble  is 
that  when  six  nations  in  Europe 
are  spending  their  utmost  energies 
to  kill,  what  even  a  large  country, 
three  thousand  miles  away,  can  do 
to  save  must  seem  almost  trivial. 
Still,  we  ought  to  do  more;  we 
must  do  more.  No  other  invest- 
ment offers  such  returns  as  the 
succor  of  the  Belgians,  so  many  of 
whom,  woeful  to  tell,  are  beyond 
aid  already. 

Come,  brethren,  let  us  turn  out 
our  pockets  at  least.  The  special 
appeal  now  to  us  is  for  the  Bel- 
gians and  the  French  of  Northern 
France;  the  regions  where  the  war 


TURN  OUT  OUR  POCKETS    131 

has  gone.  What  terrible  cries  will 
come  later  and  from  where  no  one 
can  tell.  In  Austria  there  must 
be  great  distress,  but  Austria  and 
East  Prussia  and  Poland  are  not 
so  near  our  door  as  Belgium  is. 
The  only  safe  place  for  Belgian 
non-combatants  now  seems  to  be 
England,  and  there  they  have  gone 
by  thousands  and  are  being  cared 
for  by  the  English. 

No  doubt  our  great  part  in  this 
vast  disturbance  is  to  mind  our 
own  business  and  keep  our  general 
apparatus  of  production  and  dis- 
tribution going  for  the  benefit 
not  only  of  ourselves,  but  of  all 
Europe.  But  though  to  mind  our 
jobs  is  useful,  it  does  not  ease 
our  hearts  much.     Lucky  anybody 


132  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

who  can  go  over  there  and  help. 
Lucky  anybody  who  has  much  to 
give  and  gives  it.  Those  who  have 
not  much  to  give  should  pinch 
and  give  more  than  they  can. 
That  is  better  than  to  be  left  out 
of  this  war.  It  is  not  brotherly  to 
stay  out. 

The  interminable  battle  on  the 
Aisne  still,  at  this  writing,  rages 
on  indecisively,  apparently  with 
enormous  loss  of  life.  We  are  told 
now  to  call  it,  not  a  battle,  but  a 
campaign.  Other  huge  campaigns 
are  going  on  to  the  east  of  Ger- 
many, where  the  Russians  seem  to 
have  the  better  of  it,  and  where 
also  enormous  losses  attest  the  ef- 
ficiency of  modern  war  machines. 


TURN  OUT  OUR  POCKETS     133 

It  makes  for  detachment  from 
life  to  watch  these  tremendous 
proceedings.  It  seems  ignoble, 
and  it  is,  to  cling  over  anxiously 
to  life  when  daily  so  many  thou- 
sands before  our  eyes  give  it  up. 
This  is  our  battle,  too,  that  is 
being  fought  in  Europe;  our  des- 
tiny as  well  as  their  own  that  Bel- 
gians, British,  French,  Germans, 
and  all  the  rest  are  struggling  and 
dying  over.  This  is  a  conflict  of 
fundamental  ideas.  If  the  Ger- 
man idea  wins,  its  next  great 
clash  seems  likely  to  be  with  the 
idea  that  underlies  such  civiliza- 
tion as  we  have  in  these  States. 
In  some  ways  we  are  slack,  and  it 
might  not  be  altogether  bad  for  us 
to  have  the  German  goad  scar  our 


134  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

easy-setting  hides.  Read  how  the 
German  peril  has  turned  Enghsh 
Aldershot  into  a  factory  for  turn- 
ing soft  islanders  into  athletes. 
A  very  efficient  instrument  is 
the  German  goad,  and  wonderful 
things  it  seems  to  have  done  for 
Germany.  There  is  a  large  pro- 
portion of  unused  energy  in  most 
people;  the  use  of  the  German 
goad  is  to  bring  it  all  to  applica- 
tion. Nature's  goad  is  hunger,  but 
that  is  not  enough  to  carry  civili- 
zation very  far.  The  German 
goad  undertakes  to  cover  the 
whole  distance  that  civilization  has 
to  go;  to  prod  the  whole  world 
into  a  huge  productiveness  and  all 
siirviving  mankind  into  fabulous 
efficiency.     That  is  the  idea  that 


TURN  OUT  OUR  POCKETS    135 

is  now  being  discussed  in  Europe. 
It  has  come  to  the  point  where 
the  nations  have  to  settle  whether 
they  will  accept  the  German  idea 
and  try  to  be  like  Germany,  or 
reject  it  and  demonstrate  that  it 
is  unsound. 

What  is  the  matter  with  it?  It 
looks  lovely  to  the  Germans,  and 
in  great  measure  it  has  agreed  with 
them  wonderfully.  They  tell  you 
that  the  army  and  military  train- 
ing is  the  very  hub  of  their  wheel ; 
that  it  has  made  Germany  what 
she  is ;  that  it  is  the  greatest  thing 
in  the  world,  and  that  to  force  it  on 
the  world  is  to  confer  on  the  world 
the  greatest  possible  blessing. 

Well,    Germany    has    conferred 


136  THE  WAR,   WEEK  BY  WEEK 

this  blessing  very  considerably  on 
Europe  in  the  last  forty  ^^ars,  and 
Europe  in  her  deep  perversity 
declines  to  like  it.  She  wants  to 
be  rid  of  it.  Perhaps  she  doubts 
that  military  training  is  the  great- 
est thing  in  the  world.  There 
have  been  folks  who  said  that  love 
was.  Germany  has  not  bothered 
much  with  love,  but  she  is  undeni- 
ably strong  in  military  training. 
There  is  so  much  good  in  the 
German  discipline  that  people  were 
almost  ready  to  believe  it  was  all 
good.  Since  the  war  came  that 
inclination  has  weakened.  The  in- 
vasion of  Belgium  weakened  it; 
so  did  Louvain;  so  did  Rheims;  so 
did  the  terrible  harrying  of  the 
Belgians;    so    did    the    unanimity 


TURN  OUT  OUR  POCKETS     137 

with  which  nearly  all  of  Europe 
and  the  United  States  have  taken, 
some  actively,  some  as  neutrals, 
the  negative  side  in  the  argument. 
The  feeling  grows  that  the  German 
idea,  with  all  its  immense  good, 
makes  for  mania,  and  would  ulti- 
mately, if  it  ran  on,  produce  a 
crazy  world,  bereft  of  its  jewels, 
with  battles  forever  running  in 
its  head,  and  huge  wars  forever 
in  preparation.  So  the  discus- 
sion runs  very  high.  When  it  is 
over  the  question  will  come  up 
what  to  substitute  for  the  German 
idea  that  will  possess  the  valuable 
disciplinary  facilities  of  that  sys- 
tem without  its  dangerous  ten- 
dency to  produce  military  mania. 
After  all,  efficiency  isn't  every- 


138  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

thing.  It  isn't  the  chief  end  of 
man,  nor  even  his  main  business 
on  earth.  His  main  business  on 
earth  is  to  Hve,  except  when,  on 
occasion,  as  now,  the  main  busi- 
ness of  very  many  men  becomes, 
temporarily,  to  die. 


GERMAN   "KULTUR**   AND   THE 
PRUSSIAN   IDEA 


GERMANY'S  purpose  in 
the  great  war,  as  seen 
from  here,  is  to  teach 
a  reluctant  world  that  what  the 
German  Kaiser  says  goes.  It  is 
a  war  for  the  vindication  of  the 
Prussian  say-so;  a  war  of  destruc- 
tion and  extermination  of  what- 
ever stands  up  against  Prussian 
domination;  a  war  to  parcel  out 
the  world  anew,  and  give  Prussia 
what  she  wants.  Prussia  has 
dominated  the  rest  of  Germany  so 
completely  that  it  has  forgotten 
139 


140  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

that  there  ever  were  ideas  in  Ger- 
many that  were  not  Prussian. 
Undoubtedly  Prussia  is  eager  to 
dominate  the  rest  of  mankind  in 
the  same  way,  and  morally  cap- 
able of  using  any  available  means 
to  do  it.  With  the  Prussian  idea 
it  is  truly  a  case  of  world-power  or 
downfall.  It  is  an  idea  that  is 
incapable  of  repose,  that  requires 
periodical  exercise  in  the  field, 
and  must  be  fed  on  conquest  if  it 
is  to  keep  its  strength. 

That  is  not  at  all  true  of  German 
*'kultur, "  which  we  have  so  much 
been  told  the  Germans  are  fight- 
ing to  defend.  The  German 
"kultur**  means  pig-iron,  Krupps, 
ships,  beer,  chemicals,  music, 
discipline,    military    service,    and 


''KULTUR''  AND  PRUSSIA    141 

professors.  It  is  the  German 
civilization  and  includes  the  Ger- 
man attempt  to  discover,  assimi- 
late, and  apply  knowledge  and 
truth.  This  last  needs  very  little 
defense  by  armies.  It  only  needs 
time  and  peace.  Given  those,  it 
will  conquer  the  world,  if  it  is  good 
enough,  and  not  a  gun  fired. 
Knowledge  and  truth  are  things 
for  which,  even  in  this  world, 
there  is  plenty  of  room.  Of  habit- 
able land  there  is  only  a  limited 
area  on  this  planet ;  good  ports  are 
scarce;  all  the  ready-made  farm- 
ing land  in  the  better  climates 
belongs  to  somebody  capable  of 
making  trouble  if  ousted,  but 
the  more  truth  people  get  hold  of, 
the  more  there  is  left;  the  more 


142  THE  WAR,   WEEK  BY  WEEK 

knowledge  is  applied,  the  more 
awaits  application.  In  so  far  as 
German  "kultur"'was  good,  it  had 
all  the  world  to  dominate,  and  no 
objection.  In  thirty  years  that 
domination  had  made  vast  pro- 
gress. But  against  the  domina- 
tion of  the  Prussian  idea  the 
objection  is  so  vital  and  intense 
that  in  the  great  world-rising 
against  it  there  is  only  too  much 
prospect  that  the  breath  of  Ger- 
man "kultur"  will  be  clean 
squeezed  out  of  the  German 
body.  Krupps  cannot  do  much 
for  it;  destruction  and  exter- 
mination— the  erasure  of  beauty, 
the  expulsion  of  piety — are  not 
aids  to  it.  It  should  be  the  ally 
of    those    things,    not    their    foe. 


''KULTUR''  AND  PRUSSIA    143 

Alas,  then,  for  German  "kultur, " 
ridden  to  its  death  by  the  ruthless 
Prussian  demon;  struggling  splen- 
didly to  do  the  demon's  work,  but 
fated,  who  can  doubt,  to  sink  in 
due  time,  gasping  and  bleeding, 
foundered  by  that  fatal  rider.  The 
pity  of  it;  oh,  the  pity  of  it!  that 
what  should  be  the  world's  ex- 
ample must  figure  as  its  warning; 
that  this  hell  that  is  heating  for 
the  Saxons  and  Bavarians — kindly 
people  both — is  the  kind  of  hell 
that  awaits  all  people  who  fail 
to  fight  off  Prussian  domination 
before  it  has  enchained  them.  It 
is  a  bad  hell ;  a  hell  of  Krupps  and 
ruined  cities  and  violated  women, 
and  tears  and  misery  and  blood, 
and  blackened  fanes. 


144  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

Since  Antwerp  fell  it  has  seemed 
more  than  ever  that  this  world 
is  not  our  home,  and  the  war  seems 
more  than  ever  like  a  war  of  Rome 
and  Carthage.  For  the  capture  of 
Antwerp  seems  a  blow  at  England. 
We  were  pretty  sure  all  along  that 
the  Germans  could  beat  up  the 
Belgians  if  they  put  their  minds  on 
it,  but  it  was  hoped  that  England 
and  France  between  them  could 
furnish  distraction  enough  to  keep 
them  diverted.  But  that  has  not 
proved  feasible,  and  now  it  seems 
a  longer  road  than  ever  to  Tip- 
perary. 

The  improved  Krupp  siege-guns 
seem  to  have  made  all  exposed 
fortifications  obsolete.  We  have 
been  building  some  defenses  lately 


''KULTUR''  AND  PRUSSIA    145 

to  protect  the  Panama  Canal.  It 
will  be  interesting  to  know  if  they 
would  be  of  any  use  against  these 
new  Krupps.  Fortifications  are 
expensive  and  take  up  room,  and 
perhaps  it  is  something  to  be  put 
to  the  credit  of  the  big  Krupps 
and  the  Zeppelins  that  they  have 
destroyed  the  efficiency  of  forts. 
If  there  is  to  be  no  security  in 
fortifications,  folks  who  hope  to 
live  in  the  enjoyment  of  liberty  and 
die  in  their  beds  must  contrive 
new  means  of  protection.  The 
peace  of  the  world  must  rest  on 
some  new  understanding,  ade- 
quately enforced,  or  perhaps  we 
must  just  resign  ourselves  to  tak- 
ing bigger  chances.  It  was  a  bene- 
fit to  the  world  and  helped  the 


146  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

general  cause  of  democracy  when 
the  early  improvements  in  cannon 
put  old-time  city  walls  out  of  use. 
City  dwellers  have  had  more  room 
ever  since,  and  trade  has  been 
freer.  Like  advantages  may 
come  in  the  end  out  of  the  current 
improvements  in  war  which  have 
made  it  too  efficient.  When  all 
modern  knowledge  and  all  the  re- 
sources of  modern  industry  are 
concentrated  on  the  work  of  killing 
men  by  wholesale  and  destroying 
all  their  works,  a  degree  of  success 
is  attained  which  is  self-decapitat- 
ing.  Questions  like  this  current 
one,  whether  the  Prussian  Idea  is 
the  Only  Hope  and  the  Kaiser 
the  Preferred  Instrument  of  the 
Almighty,    are,    of    course,    very 


"KULTUR''  AND  PRUSSIA    147 

interesting  indeed  to  discuss,  but 
even  to  the  Prussians  themselves 
the  discussion  will  seem  too  dear  if 
the  price  of  it  is  extermination. 

We  do  not  realize  this  war,  we 
Americans.  The  people  who  re- 
alize it  most,  as  yet,  are  the  Bel- 
gians, but  all  the  countries  actively 
concerned  in  it  will  realize  in  due 
time  what  it  means  when  the 
resources  of  a  mechanical  civili- 
zation are  concentrated  on  the 
destruction  of  human  life.  As  for 
Belgium,  she  is  like  a  country 
crucified  for  the  saving  of  the 
nations.  Of  all  the  countries  in- 
volved in  the  war,  she  was  the 
most  innocent,  the  best  justified, 
the    most    gallant.     Gashed    with 


148  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

innumerable  wounds,  her  poor 
body  is  a  witness,  still  living, 
against  the  aggressions  of  Prussia, 
and  against  our  modern  warfare 
by  machinery. 

There  comes  in  the  papers  an 
echo  of  complaint  from  England, 
alleging  that  negotiations  are 
making  here  to  stop  the  war,  and 
protesting  that  the  war  cannot  be 
stopped  until  it  reaches  its  natural 
finish.  As  to  negotiations  we 
know  nothing,  and  our  newspapers 
have  reported  nothing.  But  it  is 
true  enough  that  the  war  cannot 
be  lanced  until  it  comes  to  a  head. 

There  are  two  ways  in  which  the 
Prussian  idea  of  world-domination 
may  achieve  its  fate;  one  is  to  be 
beaten  now  from  the  outside;  the 


''KULTUR''  AND  PRUSSIA    149 

Other  is  to  succeed  now  and  be 
overthrown  in  due  time  from  with- 
in. But,  either  way,  it  is  a  very- 
important  idea  that  will  consider- 
ably change  the  world;  and  cer- 
tainly if  it  crashes  down  in  ruin 
now,  all  the  other  ideas  of  world- 
domination  by  a  single  empire, 
British,  Russian,  American  or  any 
other,  will  go  with  it.  When 
the  London  Stock  Exchange  opens 
again  for  business  it  is  likely  to 
open  on  a  world  chastened  into 
considerable  respect  for  the  text 
that  embellishes  the  Exchange 
front:  '*The  Earth  is  the  Lord's 
and  the  fulness  thereof.'* 


DR.  MUNSTERBERG  S   APPEAL 

ONE  may  open  Professor 
Munsterberg's  book,  "The 
War  and  America,"  to 
scoff  and  close  it  to  pray.  There 
is  little  in  it  to  change  the  opinions 
of  Americans  about  the  war,  but 
there  is  a  good  deal  that  appeals 
to  sympathy.  Dr.  Munsterberg's 
position  is  trying.  He  is  a  friend 
of  this  country,  has  cast  in  his  lot 
with  it,  or,  at  least,  is  doing  his 
life's  work  here,  has  been,  he  says, 
its  defender  against  foolish  detrac- 
tion abroad,  has  been  a  representa- 
tive of  America  among  Germans, 
150 


DR.  MUNSTERBERCS  APPEAL  151 

as  also  a  representative  of  Ger- 
many among  Americans.  Now  he 
is  shocked  and  grieved  when  the 
country  of  his  birth  gets  into  a 
war  with  most  of  Europe  to  find 
American  sentiment  against  Ger- 
many in  overwhelming  measure. 
He  cannot  understand  it.  He 
thinks  there  must  be  some  mis- 
take; that  we  don't  understand 
Germany  and  her  position;  don't 
know  how  good  the  Germans  are, 
how  important  to  the  world,  how 
imperiled  by  the  jealousy  of  Eng- 
land, the  unaccommodating  spirit 
of  Belgium,  the  revengefiilness  of 
France,  and  the  dark  malice  of 
Russia.  How  can  we  see  these 
valuable  and  persistently  peace- 
seeking  people  so  atrociously  as- 


152  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

sailed  and  not  be  for  them!  Did 
not  gallant  old  Steuben  fight  for 
us — better  than  Lafayette  did — in 
the  Revolution?  Did  not  Ger- 
mans in  considerable  numbers  fight 
for  the  Union  in  the  Civil  War? 
Is  not  nearly  a  quarter  of  our 
population  of  the  German  stock? 
At  least  we  should  be  neutral — 
neutral  in  our  feelings  as  well  as 
in  the  actions  of  our  government. 
Family  ties,  trade  relations,  art 
and  science,  respect  and  good- 
will had  bound  the  United  States 
and  Germany  and  Austria  closely 
together.  "To-day,'*  says  Dr. 
Munsterberg,  "one  surging  wave 
of  hatred  has  swept  it  all  away." 
' '  Hatred  ? ' '  Herr  Professor ; 
hatred?     Must  the  judge  hate  the 


DR.  MUNSTERBERCS  APPEAL  153 

plantiff  when  he  gives  judgment 
for  the  defendant?  "I  have 
repeated  incessantly,"  you  write, 
' '  that  the  desire  for  fairness  is  one 
of  the  deepest  traits  in  the  Ameri- 
can mind.  Must  I  reverse  all  my 
enthusiasm  and  my  faith?" 

No,  don't  reverse  yet.  See  this 
misery  through  and  watch  how  we 
behave.  We  are  not  necessarily 
unfair  because  the  Franco-Bel- 
gian-British end  of  this  trouble 
looks  better  to  us  than  the  German 
end.  Maybe  that  end  is  the  best. 
You  admire  our  propensity  to  be 
fair,  but  the  minute  we  incline 
against  the  German  side  in  a  great 
dispute  you  impugn  our  judicial 
capacity. 

Never  mind !    Everything  should 


154  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

be  excused  to  you  because  you  are 
a  suffering  man,  trying  to  make 
a  bad  case  look  good.  No  doubt 
it  is  impossible  that  you  should  see 
this  case  as  we  see  it.  Your  book 
must  convince  any  un- German 
reader  that  we  shall  never  see  the 
case  as  you  see  it.  The  idea  which 
you  offer  of  simple,  honest  Ger- 
many taking  a  few  indispensable 
military  precautions  against  the 
ravening  wolves  of  Europe,  and 
especially  against  the  impending 
hug  of  the  terrible  bear,  is  comic 
to  us,  Herr  Doctor.  We  can't 
help  it.  With  all  due  respect,  we 
remember  Frederick  William  and 
his  tall  grenadiers,  Frederick  the 
Great  and  Maria  Theresa,  Bis- 
marck's Prussia  and  Austria  in  '66, 


DR.  MUNSTERBERG'S  APPEAL  155 

and  then  what  you  call  "the  war 
of  1870  recklessly  stirred  by  the 
intolerance  of  Imperial  France," 
and  since  1888  the  Kaiser  and 
his  Krupps,  and  we  smile,  Herr 
Doctor;  we  just  have  to. 

Blood  and  iron  is  a  great  medi- 
cine, but  Germany,  as  we  see  it, 
has  overdosed  herself  with  it.  She 
has  not  made  a  friend  in  Europe 
since  Bismarck  died.  They  say 
he  was  overruled  when  Alsace  and 
Lorraine  were  detached  from 
France.  They  tell  us  the  Kaiser 
was  tricked  into  this  war  by  the 
Prussian  war-hogs.  Alas,  Pro- 
fessor Miinsterberg,  it  is  not  the 
Americans  who  are  the  enemies  of 
Germany.  You  will  find  in  due 
time  that  they  do  not  hate   the 


156  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

good  Germans.  The  enemies  of 
Germany  have  been  men  of  her 
own  household,  the  men  who  have 
not  only  dreamed,  but  published 
to  the  world  what  you  scornfully 
describe  as  "the  fantastic  dreams 
of  the  so-called  Pan-Germans." 
Why,  since  1870,  has  Germany 
confidently  expected  another  great 
war?  Why  has  she  ceaselessly 
trained  men,  built  fortresses,  cast 
guns,  hoarded  money  and  organ- 
ized to  the  last  detail  a  campaign 
against  the  rest  of  Europe?  The 
reason,  as  we  see  it,  is  that  the 
small  class  that  guides  the  destinies 
of  her  industrious  millions  has  had 
**God  with  Us"  for  its  motto  and 
*'Rule  or  Ruin"  for  its  policy. 
Germany  is  a  great  country  gone 


DR,  MUNSTERBERG'S  APPEAL  i^-j 

wrong.  She  is  getting  what  her 
rulers  have  earned  for  her.  They 
have  made  her  an  impossible 
nation;  a  menace  to  mankind. 
She  has  put  her  trust  in  force, 
alienated  her  natural  allies,  dis- 
honored her  treaties.  Now  her 
appeal  to  force  has  gone  to  judg- 
ment. If  she  conquers  Europe 
ruin  will  find  her  in  victory  as  it 
found  Napoleon.  If  Europe  con- 
quers her  she  will  get  off  easier; 
but  either  way  she  has  terrible 
sorrows  ahead  of  her  and  is  a  fit 
object  of  pity  for  all  kind  people. 


A    LITTLE    MORE    ARMAMENT   FOR 
UNCLE     SAM ! 

WE  saw  the  German  army 
march  to  Paris.  We  saw 
Liege  fall,  and  since  then 
we  have  watched  the  capture  of 
Antwerp.  We  have  stood  by 
attentive  while  German  submar- 
ines have  sunk  five  British  cruisers. 
We  have  also  seen  the  German 
attacking  force  driven  back  from 
the  Marne  to  the  Aisne  by  the 
French  and  British  forces,  and 
German  commerce  chased  from 
the  seas  by  the  British  navy.  We 
have  been  duly  attentive  to  all 
158 


AMERICA  NEEDS  ARMAMENT  159 

these  spectacles,  and  unless  we  are 
very,  very  stupid,  we  must  have 
acquired  some  new  and  definite 
realizations  about  modern  war. 
Chief  among  them  may  well  be 
the  conviction  that  if  we  were  to 
choose  from  the  animal  kingdom 
the  creature  that  best  exemplifies 
our  relative  condition  among 
powerful  nations,  we  would  have 
to  remove  our  good  old  eagle 
from  our  country's  seal  and  coins 
and  substitute  for  him  the  soft- 
shell  crab. 

Considering  what  we  are  and 
what  we  have  got,  we  are,  next  to 
China,  the  most  defenseless  con- 
siderable people  on  the  crust. 
Only  our  modest  navy  impairs  our 
claim  to  be  the  Pie  of  the  Nations. 


i6o  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

To  be  sure,  we  are  too  big  to  be 
conquered  by  any  sudden  dash, 
and  have  in  us,  besides,  enormous 
potentiaHties  of  defense  or  agres- 
sion. To  be  sure,  too,  we  are  so 
pacific  and  so  Httle  ambitious  to 
take  anything  from  anybody,  and 
so  isolated  that  we  can  safely  go 
much  lighter  armed  and  less  pro- 
tected than  any  other  great  country. 
But  we  seem  to  have  leaned  too 
hard  on  isolation  and  our  pacific 
reputation.  This  war  that  we 
have  been  watching  has  shown  us 
that  our  coast  defenses  are  pro- 
bably out  of  date;  that,  in  pro- 
portion to  oiir  responsibilities,  our 
navy  is  small  and  insufficiently 
equipped,  and  that  our  little  skele- 
ton army  needs  more  meat  on  its 


AMERICA  NEEDS  ARMAMENT  i6i 

poor  bones.  Everyone  who  is  in- 
terested in  our  equipment  for  war 
knows  that  it  is  conspicuously 
incomplete.  No  one  knows  it 
better  than  Europe  and  Japan. 
Mexico  at  our  back  door  is  a  big 
bundle  of  disorders  and  anxieties. 
Our  temporary  tenure  of  Vera  Cruz 
was  threatened  last  week  by  some 
uneasy  Mexican  bandit,  and  may 
be  threatened  again  to-morrow. 
What  our  duty  to  Mexico  may 
come  to  be  we  do  not  know,  but 
if  our  hopes  should  be  disappointed 
and  we  should  yet  have  to  inter- 
vene, our  whole  military  force  in 
being  would  not  be  enough  for  the 
job. 

We  are  pacific,  but  we  under- 


i62  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

take  some  duties  which  imply 
maintenance  of  a  moderately  com- 
petent apparatus  of  force.  The 
Monroe  Doctrine,  that  is  part  of 
our  accepted  foreign  policy,  is 
maintained  not  so  much  by  us 
as  by  the  navy  of  England.  We 
see  Germany,  her  vast  efficiency  in 
military  matters,  and  the  curious 
obsessions  and  aspirations  to 
which  the  minds  that  control  her 
are  subject.  We  know  that  Ger- 
many has  yearnings  that  conflict 
with  our  continental  policy,  and 
that  what  chiefly  stands  between 
them  and  us  is  England,  now 
fighting  for  her  life.  We  don't 
think  England  will  be  conquered, 
but  if  she  should  be,  what  have 
we  got  to  back  up  such  an  answer 


AMERICA  NEEDS  ARMAMENT  163 

as  we  should  wish  to  make  to  a 
proposal  from  Germany  that  she 
should  be  allowed  to  improve  the 
culture  of  Mexico  or  South  Brazil? 
And  there  is  Japan,  whom  we  love 
considerably,  and  who,  we  doubt 
not,  is  fond  of  us,  but  who  will 
think  no  less  kindly  of  us  for  hav- 
ing due  shot  in  our  lockers,  and 
being  not  only  polite  and  consider- 
ate, but  able-bodied. 

Are  we  not  rather  too  short  of 
munitions  of  war?  Recent  events 
have  demonstrated  that  we  are 
living  on  the  same  planet  with 
nations  whose  supreme  desire  is 
to  knock  the  heads  off  of  one 
another,  and  who,  just  now,  have 
subverted  all  their  other  business 


1 64  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

to  the  accomplishment  of  that  pur- 
pose. What  this  world  will  be  like, 
or  who  will  be  boss  in  it,  when 
present  activities  terminate,  we 
cannot  guess.  What  aims  the 
conquerors  will  have  or  what 
means  to  accomplish  them  we 
cannot  tell,  but  in  a  world  so  mad 
as  this,  plunging  to  conditions 
which  cannot  be  foreseen,  would 
it  not  be  wise  for  us  to  add  a 
little  to  our  means  of  self-pro- 
tection? 

It  takes  three  years  to  build  a 
battleship.  They  say  it  takes  a 
year  to  make  a  torpedo.  It  takes 
six  months,  at  least,  to  make  even 
an  experimental  soldier,  and  very 
much  longer  to  make  even  an 
experimental   sailor.     We  do  not 


AMERICA  NEEDS  ARMAMENT  i6s 

want  to  be  a  military  nation,  but 
we  should  not  be  too  slack  about 
military  prepartion.  Had  we  not 
better  take,  quietly  but  promptly, 
our  little  dose  of  the  medicine 
which  is  being  passed  out  in  such 
vast  quantities  to  Europe?  Our 
situation  has  changed  violently  in 
three  months.  We  ought  to  do 
something  about  it,  and  do  it  at 
once.  The  time  is  at  hand  when 
we  shall  have  to  take  care  of  our- 
selves and  may  be  called  upon  to 
protect  some  of  our  neighbors. 
Should  we  not  qualify  ourselves 
betimes  for  these  duties?  We  are 
having  a  tremendous  lesson  in 
human  history,  from  which,  for 
us,  one  application  is:  In  time 
of  war  prepare  for  peace ! 


1 66  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

One  alternative  to  employing 
some  more  troops  and  providing 
for  annual  provision  of  a  moder- 
ate reserve  of  trained  soldiers, 
and  building  a  supply  of  torpe- 
does, submarines,  and  junk  of  that 
sort,  and  putting  a  rather  larger 
share  of  the  national  mind  and 
money  into  military  and  naval  pro- 
vision, would  be  to  come  out  for 
non-resistance.  Bishop  Greer  has 
done  that.  To  the  average  un- 
regenerate  mind  it  does  not  look 
like  a  good  course.  But  it  looks 
about  as  good  and  quite  as  hope- 
ful as  this  other  method  that  is 
now  proceeding  in  Europe.  To 
be  between  excessive  armament 
and  non-resistance  is  to  be  between 
the  devil  and  the  deep  sea,  and 


A  MERICA  NEEDS  A RMA  MENT  167 

after  all,  drowning  is  a  compara- 
tively easy  death. 

What  does  anybody  suppose 
Germany  would  do  to  the  world  if 
it  sat  down  and  let  her  have  her 
way?  The  chances  are  that  if  all 
outside  opposition  were  removed 
from  her,  the  South  Germans 
would  presently  get  to  work  to 
rid  themselves  of  the  insufferable 
Prussian  military  caste,  including 
every  Hohenzollern  who  could  be 
caught  on  his  way  to  the  tall 
timber. 

In  the  light  of  events  in  the  last 
three  months,  the  present  united 
condition  of  Germany  has  come 
to  look  like  a  cruel  union  of  the 
wolf  and  his  prey.  The  great 
crime    against    Germany    is    not 


1 68  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

British  jealousy,  not  French  re- 
venge, nor  Russian  mahce.  It  is 
German  governmental  stupidity. 
Not  since  William  II  assisted  Bis- 
marck down  the  German  front 
steps  with  his  boot,  has  Germany 
produced  a  man  who  had  the  nec- 
essary gumption  'to  get  anything 
from  Europe,  except  with  a  blud- 
geon. The  Kaiser  is  not  so  bad 
a  man,  but  he  is  of  second  or  third- 
rate  ability,  and  he  has  managed 
to  concentrate  in  his  sacred  per- 
son virtually  all  authority  over 
the  destinies  of  the  German  people. 
Of  course,  at  times,  democracy  is 
heartrending,  but  it  isn't  so  bad 
as  a  hereditary  Kaiserism. 

Stars  above!     This  spectacle  of 
a  great  people  befuddled  and  mis- 


AMERICA  NEEDS  ARMAMENT  169 

led  in  this  century  by  one  second- 
rate  man,  himself  misled  by  a  lot 
of  bughouse  militants  whose  trade 
is  destruction !  It  makes  one  want 
to  go  out  and  eat  grass  with  the 
cows,  like  Nebuchadnezzar;  to  get 
in  with  the  animals,  of  whom 

''Not  one  is  dissatisfied,  not  one 
is  demented  with  the  mania  for 
owning    things," 

(especially  colonies),  and  who, 
though  at  times  they  fight,  fight 
merely  with  horns  and  teeth  and 
claws,  and  not  with  the  very  lat- 
est thing  in  modern  improved 
machinery. 

It  all  makes  one  half -ashamed 
to  buy  a  gun  or  order  a  torpedo, 


170  THE  WAR,   WEEK  BY  WEEK 

though  in  our  case,  when  we  have 
done  all  that  anyone  as  yet  will 
dare  propose,  we  shall  have  acquired 
no  more  than  a  fairly  competent 
national  police  force.  The  world 
nowadays,  under  the  great  stimu- 
lation of  German  militarism,  is 
like  a  city  infested  with  gangs, 
where  all  the  available  money  is 
spent  in  strengthening  the  gangs, 
and  nothing  for  the  police.  Only 
in  so  far  as  our  war-money  is  spent 
on  something  that  will  keep  order 
in  the  world,  will  there  be  satis- 
faction in  spending  it.  And  per- 
haps it  will  be  so  spent,  for  if  the 
warring  gangs  fight  one  another  to 
a  standstill  and  call  for  the  police, 
it  is  we  most  of  all  who  should  be 
ready  to  respond. 


V 


GERMANY,   THE  DOCTOR 

THERE  is  no  doubt  about 
the  efficiency  of  the  great 
current  German  advertise- 
ment. Our  German  friends  may- 
give  themselves  all  credit.  They 
have  done  the  trick  as  it  has  never 
been  done  before.  Everywhere 
their  notice  has  taken  the  head  of 
the  column,  and  reading  matter  is 
lucky  if  it  can  squeeze  in  next  to  it. 
Up  to  the  first  of  August  Germany, 
as  we  saw  it,  was  a  country  in 
Europe  somewhere  between  France 
and   Russia,    that   printed   in   an 

old-fashioned,    middle-age   type, 
171 


172  THE  WAR,   WEEK  BY  WEEK 

was  good  in  music,  beer,  shipping, 
and  manufactures,  and  rather 
bumptious  in  international  poHtics. 
German  history  was  so  mixed  up 
that  only  the  more  proficient 
students  got  far  into  it.  German 
baths  were  good;  so  were  German 
razors.  The  Germans  were  the 
best  chemists,  and  made  excellent 
toys.  We  knew  them  as  efficient 
people;  traded  with  them  exten- 
sively; welcomed  them  here  as 
visitors  or  settlers;  but  about  the 
German  mind  and  what  was  going 
on  in  it,  very  few  of  us  had  much 
knowledge  or  felt  any  particular 
concern. 

But  since  the  fourth  of  August, 
when  the  Germans  began  to  pub- 
lish their  advertisement  across  the 


GERMANY,  THE  DOCTOR    173 

line  in  Belgium,  all  that  has 
changed.  To  all  thinking  people 
in  the  world,  the  compelling  and 
engrossing  thought  has  become 
Germany.  What  is  she?  How 
came  she  so?  What  does  she 
want,  and  can  she  get  it?  Those 
have  become  the  ruling  subjects 
of  enquiry,  and  enquirers  have 
tackled  them  on  the  run.  The  one 
thing  needful  has  seemed  to  be 
to  understand  Germany.  Every- 
thing about  her  has  assumed  a  vast 
importance — her  place  on  the 
map,  her  history  for  ten  centuries, 
her  religions,  her  ambitions,  her 
hatreds  and  the  sources  of  them 
and,  of  course,  her  military  and 
naval  apparatus.  We  are  all  in 
the    situation    of    the    fisherman 


174  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

when  he  had  let  the  genie  out  of  the 
bottle.  We  don't  know  what  we 
have  got,  but  we  see  that  it  is 
a  mighty  big  thing,  and  want  to 
know  about  it.  We  want  to  know, 
especially,  what  it  is  going  to  do 
to  us. 

Already  it  has  done  a  lot.  Peo- 
ple used  to  laugh  about  the  Belgian 
lion,  especially  the  one  on  the 
monument  at  Waterloo.  It  may 
be  that  the  careless  morals  of  the 
late  Leopold  impaired  the  dignity 
of  Belgiimi's  reputation.  At  any 
rate,  most  people  thought  rather  of 
her  thrift  than  of  her  punch.  But 
over  her  line  drives  Germany,  and 
behold  Belgium  the  wild-cat;  Bel- 
gium  who   dared    the    Minotaur; 


GERMANY,  THE  DOCTOR    175 

Belgium,  the  savior  of  France,  the 
defense  of  England,  the  pepper  in 
the  monster*s  eye,  the  hero,  the 
martyr !  Never  such  a  splendor  of 
glory  and  of  sympathy — and,  alas! 
punishment — as  the  great  German 
advertisement  has  brought  to  little 
Belgium. 

And  France,  whose  vice  has 
been  thrift,  behold  her  a  spend- 
thrift of  all  things  precious! 
Emotional  France!  See  her  calm, 
determined,  prompt;  well  ordered, 
well  generaled;  matching  strength 
with  strength,  prodigal  in  devo- 
tion, intelligent  in  sacrifice. 

There  is  a  new  England.  Lloyd 
George  tells  how  "A  great  flood  of 
luxury  and  sloth  which  had  sub- 
merged the  land  is  receding  and 


176  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

a  new  Britain  is  appearing"  that 
"can  see  for  the  first  time  the 
fundamental  things  that  matter 
in  hfe  and  that  have  been  obscured 
...  by  the  tropical  growth  of 
prosperity." 

Very  wonderful,  all  this.  Ger- 
many is  the  great  doctor  of  Europe. 
Played-out  men  and  women  have 
been  going  to  her  to  be  cured  for 
generations.  Now  she  is  bringing 
her  cure  to  those  who  stayed  at 
home. 

Oh,  the  amazing  Germany!  she 
that  practically  single-handed  has 
served  notice  on  Europe :  ' '  Obey  or 
fight  for  freedom ! "  How  came  it 
to  be  in  her?  Out  of  what  far-off 
springs,    what    inward    strivings, 


GERMANY,  THE  DOCTOR    177 

what  leadings,  what  visions  and 
hallucinations  has  come  to  her  this 
extraordinary  call  to  be  the  purge 
of  a  commercialized  civilization! 
How  came  it  that  the  Germans,  a 
people  mostly  simple,  kindly,  and 
affectionate,  should  suddenly  tran- 
spire as  '^the  stern  hand  of  fate  to 
scourge  us  to  an  elevation  where 
we  can  see  the  everlasting  things 
that  matter  for  a  nation?" 

We  want  to  know;  we  want  to 
understand.  Everything  about 
Germany  has  become  vitally  inter- 
esting. We  examine  her  on  the 
map.  We  seize  on  the  books  that 
tell  her  symptoms  and  the  history 
of  her  case.  We  cannot  read  Von 
Treitschke,  but  we  read  about  him ; 
and  we  read  Nietzsche  and  Bern- 


178  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

hardi  and  Usher  and  Cramb  and 
many  more.  In  Germans,  German- 
born  or  American-born,  we  have 
a  new  interest.  Three  months 
ago  we  gave  them  no  special 
thought.  Now  we  look  at  each 
of  them  curiously,  trying  to  see  in 
them  some  trace  of  this  prodigious 
insanity  that  has  shaken  the  world. 
When  the  French  went  mad  and 
purged  Europe  they  had  a  great 
leader.  But  the  Germans  have 
no  great  leader.  They  have  a 
sublime  delusion  and  a  magnifi- 
cent machine.  Their  leaders,  it 
would  seem,  are  Von  Treitschke 
and  Nietzsche,  both  dead.  Their 
Kaiser  is  a  gallant  but  not  a  wise 
man;  their  whole  leadership,  spir- 
itual and  political,  seems  touched 


GERMANY,  THE  DOCTOR    179 

with  madness  and  inevitably  des- 
tined to  disaster.  But,  oh,  the 
marvel  and  the  splendor  of  it! 
And,  oh,  the  immense  effect  of  it 
on  a  machine-crazed  world — slack 
in  faith,  greedy  of  ease,  and  filled 
with  people  jealous  of  the  means 
and  easements  of  their  neighbors! 


THINKING  LIKE  A  GERMAN 

IT  is  related  that  Captain  Disco 
Troop,  who  went  out  of 
Gloucester  to  the  Banks, 
could  think  like  a  cod,  and  did  so 
think  when  he  was  after  cod,  and 
so  filled  his  schooner  and  got  home 
before  his  brethren. 

We  in  this  country  are  not  yet 
out  after  Germans,  but  we  are 
closely  concerned  with  them  and 
mightily  concerned  about  them, 
and  it  seems  very  important  that 
we  should  learn  to  think  like  a 
German.  For  three  months  now 
a  great  many  of  us  have  been 
1 80 


THINKING  LIKE  A  GERMAN    i8i 

trying  to  do  it,  with  such  assist- 
ance as  we  could  get  from  available 
authorities  on  German  thought, 
and  from  an  exceedingly  stimu- 
lating spectacle  of  German  action. 
We  have  read  the  newspapers, 
including  great  numbers  of  letters- 
to-the-editor,  both  from  Germans 
and  anti-Germans,  statements 
from  all  kinds  of  professors,  reports 
from  returning  travelers,  appeals 
in  great  number  from  professional 
writers,  and  "white  papers"  and 
government  manifestoes.  We 
have  read  the  English  reviews, 
our  own  magazines  and  reviews, 
and  books  or  extracts  from  books 
by  Bernhardi,  Treitschke,  Usher, 
Cramb,  Wile,  Biilow,  and  the  rest. 
From    these    researches,    coupled 


1 82  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

with  our  observation  of  current 
events  reflected  with  more  or  less 
distortion,  most  of  us  have  con- 
cluded that  Germans  think  steadily 
the  will-to-power,  conceiving  of 
the  world  as  their  lawful  apple, 
from  eating  which  they  have  been 
far  too  long  restrained  by  the 
rest  of  mankind,  and  especially 
by  England.  We  think  we  think 
like  a  German  when  we  think 
Kaiserism,  Prussianism,  the  rule 
of  might,  blood,  and  iron,  Deutsch- 
land  uber  Alles,  Force  the  higher 
law,  and  all  that.  Accordingly, 
it  is  getting  to  be  that  every 
German  is  suspect.  Three  months 
ago  we  thought  of  Germans  not 
very  often,  being  concerned  with 
baseball,    woman    suffrage,    our 


THINKING  LIKE  A  GERMAN    183 

home-grown  politics,  the  refor- 
mation of  society,  the  efforts  of  the 
Alexander  Berkman  crowd  to  con- 
fer moral  importance  on  disorder, 
the  efforts  to  expel  the  bad  germs 
from  business,  the  vivisection  of 
the  railroads,  the  chastening  of 
the  express  companies,  and  Becky 
Edelson's  disinclination  to  eat  in 
jail.  When  we  did  think  of  Ger- 
mans we  thought  of  them  respect- 
fully and  kindly,  and  with  the  sen- 
timent that  it  was  foolish  of  the 
abstinence  party  people  to  inter- 
vene between  them  and  beer.  But 
since  August  ist  all  these  other 
topics  have  been  virtually  wiped 
off  the  slate,  and  we  think,  most  of 
the  time,  about  Germans,  and  think 
like  a  German  in  so  far  as  we  can. 


1 84  THE  WAR,   WEEK  BY  WEEK 

Are  we  doing  it?  Are  we  really 
thinking  like  a  German  when 
we  think  the  Germans  are  out 
to  capture  the  earth?  Are  we 
justified  in  thinking  of  all  the 
Germans,  here  and  everywhere, 
as  for  Germany  against  the  world? 
Must  we  think  of  Herman  Ridder 
for  example,  as  awaiting,  with  a 
concrete  howitzer  base  in  his  back 
garden,  the  coming  of  the  Krupps 
to  the  Western  Hemisphere?  Are 
our  neighbors  here  of  German 
derivation  potential  spies  of  the 
Kaiser  and  potential  allies  of  the 
Kaiserland  against  this  Republic 
that  has  sheltered  them?  Ger- 
many in  this  war  is,  apparently,  a 
very  compact,  united  nation.  In 
action  all  the  Germans  are  work- 


THINKING  LIKE  A  GERMAN    185 

ing  in  unison,  fighting,  paying, 
dying,  shoulder  to  shoulder;  are 
we  to  infer  that  in  every  German 
mind  exists  this  strenuous  pur- 
pose, avowed  by  one  great  school 
of  German  thought  and  finding  its 
due  expression  in  a  war  defended 
or  extenuated  by  all  the  rest — the 
purpose  to  impose  on  earth  the 
HohenzoUern  will  as  its  dominant 
governmental  force;  to  seize  for 
Germany  whatever  Germans 
covet;  to  kill  and  destroy  what- 
ever stands  in  the  way  of  Ger- 
man ambition,  humbling  all 
other  powers  that  Germany  may 
increase? 

If  to  think  these  thoughts  is 
to  think  like  a  German,  then  we 
Americans  ought  all  to  realize  it. 


1 86  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

''Given  that  mood  of  mind," 
writes  a  friend  to  this  paper, 
''victory  for  the  Teuton  would  be 
more  terrible  than  defeat,  as  the 
world  would  be  delivered  to  a 
succession  of  barren  struggles, 
ending  in  such  suspicion  and  de- 
spair as  creation  has  never  wit- 
nessed. "  How  is  it?  How  many 
German  minds  have  yielded  to 
this  terrible  obsession?  How 
many  of  the  Gennan  fighting  men 
are  consciously  expressing  it  ?  How 
many  feel  themselves  committed 
to  world-power  or  downfall? 

It  is  the  habit  of  peoples,  when 
involved  in  a  serious  war,  to  fight 
first  and  think  afterwards.  The 
trouble    about    thinking   like    the 


THINKING  LIKE  A  GERMAN    187 

German  masses  is  that  there  is  no 
evidence  that  the  German  masses 
have  yet  begun  to  think.  They 
are  very  busy  fighting  and  taking 
care  of  wounded  men,  and  a  great 
many  already  are  dead.  Vor- 
waerts,  the  Social-Democrat  Ger- 
man paper,  showed  signs  of  think- 
ing, and  (we  hear)  was  suppressed. 
The  only  German  thought  that 
shows  just  now  is  this  Pan-Ger- 
m  a  n,  world-power,  Machtpolitik 
thought  that  has  brought  on  and  is 
conducting  the  war.  The  mass  of 
Germans  behaves  as  though  it  was 
completely  penetrated  and  pos- 
sessed with  this  thought.  If  we 
are  to  think  like  a  German  it  is 
the  only  important  and  effective 
thought  available  for  us  at  present. 


1 88  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

And  yet,  if  we  attribute  it  to  all 
Germans,  it  may  be  we  shall  do 
them  an  injustice.  It  may  be  that 
they  are  already  beginning  to  think 
thoughts  of  their  own  not  identical 
with  this  governing  thought  of  the 
Prussian  force- worshippers,  and 
that  a  little  further  along  in  the 
war,  when  the  Russians,  say,  finally 
cross  the  German  border,  we  shall 
begin  to  get  a  new  line  of  Ger- 
man thought  which  is  not  de- 
rived from  Treitschke  and  Bern- 
hardi,  and,  perhaps,  is  not  strictly 
Hohenzollern. 

Let  us  wait  a  bit  and  see.  The 
new  thought,  if  it  comes,  may  be 
very,  very  interesting  and  fruitful ; 
fruitful  possibly  of  the  sort  of 
fruit    that    hangs    from    trees   by 


THINKING  LIKE  A  GERMAN    189 

hempen  stems  and  is  harvested  in 
coffins. 

Let  us  wait.  And  especially  let 
our  brother  Americans  of  German 
descent  be  advised  to  wait  a  little, 
too,  and  not  be  absolutely  confi- 
dent that  they  are  thinking  like 
Germans  until  the  whole  of  Ger- 
man thought  has  had  a  chance  to 
disclose  itself. 

The  present  leaders  and  direct- 
ors of  German  thought  and  action 
are  the  most  important  foes  of 
democracy  in  the  world.  If  our 
fellow-republicans  here  of  German 
descent  give  the  whole  of  their 
adherence  to  their  present  leaders, 
the  later  German  sober  second 
thought  may  terribly  embarrass 
them.     What    will    they    say — 


190  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

Ridder,  Miinsterberg,  the  Roose- 
velt Exchange  Professors  and 
all  the  Kaiserbund — if  German 
thought  suddenly  changes  on 
them?  Who  will  they  speak  for 
then?  Not  for  the  United  States, 
certainly,  for  they  don't  now;  and 
not  for  Germany  if  Germany 
sheds  the  Kaiser. 

We  do  not  envy  the  gentlemen 
in  this  country  who  have  got  in 
with  the  Kaiser.  If  his  tires  go 
flat  they  will  have  a  very  long 
walk  home. 

Assistant  Secretary  Roosevelt 
says  we  have  not  enough  men  in 
the  Navy  by  eighteen  thousand  to 
man  the  ships  we  have  in  stock. 

Mr.  Roosevelt  would  be  obliged 


THINKING  LIKE  A  GERMAN    191 

if  Congress  would  authorize  the 
Navy  Department  to  recruit  that 
number  of  men  and  add  them  to 
the  force  that  the  law  at  present 
allows. 

We  believe  Mr.  Joseph  H. 
Choate,  lately  ambassador,  would 
back  Air.  Roosevelt  in  this  desire. 
In  the  introduction  that  he  has 
contributed  to  Cramb's  Germany 
and  England  Mr.  Choate  says : 

"What  is  going  on  now  is  a  con- 
test for  the  empire  of  the  world, 
and  we  have  no  use  for  empire. 
But  if  we  really  wish  for  peace 
against  all  hazards,  we  must  ever 
strengthen  our  Navy  and  train 
every  youth  in  the  Republic,  as  he 
approaches  manhood,  to  such  an 
extent  as  shall  qualify  him  to  be 


192  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

converted  into  an  efficient  soldier 
at  the  shortest  notice." 

Mr.  Choate  does  not  wish  to 
bring  on  war,  but  to  keep  out  of  it. 
With  armament  it  is  as  it  is  with 
drink  and  many  other  things.  Too 
much  is  worse  than  none;  enough 
is  better  than  none.  Germany's 
awful  example  of  too  much  arma- 
ment will  be  used  by  the  inconsid- 
erate to  scare  us  out  of  having 
enough,  but  we  must  have  an  ade- 
quate minimum  apparatus  of  pro- 
tection. 

After  all,  how  little  a  conqueror 
can  conquer!  When  forcible  re- 
sistance is  overcome  he  thinks  he 
has  won,  but  he  has  only  begun. 
There  may  be,   there  usually  is, 


THINKING  LIKE  A  GERMAN    193 

defeat  in  triumph  and  triumph  in 
defeat.  The  conqueror  can  kill 
the  body;  he  can  destroy  cities; 
he  can  spread  starvation,  change 
boundaries  and  flags.  But  his 
missiles  cannot  kill  the  spirit.  If 
a  beaten  race  survives  it  remains  a 
factor  in  life.  If  it  is  extermin- 
ated, the  conquering  nation  can- 
not escape  the  reckoning  for  its 
cruelty.  Its  own  spirit  reflects  its 
conduct,  is  maimed  when  it  inflicts 
an  unjust  wound,  is  chained  by  the 
chains  it  fastens  on  its  prisoners,  is 
seared  by  its  ferocities,  blasted  by 
its  ambitions,  blood-poisoned  by 
its  fiiry. 

And  in  the  end,  what  lasts  is 
ideas.     The    Jews    have    had    no 

country  for  nearly  two  thousand 
13 


194   THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

years,  but  they  had  an  idea,  and 
they  have  lasted  and  have  pros- 
pered. The  Greeks  ended  cen- 
tiiries  ago  as  a  poHtical  power,  but 
their  ideas  still  influence  man- 
kind enormously.  The  Romans 
were  conquered  and  reconquered 
long  since,  but  Roman  law  and  the 
Roman  character  and  some  of  the 
Roman  ideas  about  political  and 
colonial  government  and  the  regu- 
lation of  life  are  still  active  factors 
in  our  world.  It  is  important  that 
order  should  be  kept  on  this  planet, 
but  it  is  not  so  important  who 
keeps  it  as  people  think.  What  is 
important  is  the  ideas  that  de- 
velop when  it  gives  them  a  chance. 


GERMANY  AND  COLONIES 

A  MAN  who  returned  a  book 
by  Nietzsche  to  the  PubHc 
Library    remarked    as    he 
passed  it  in:  "This  does  not  get 
under  my  skin." 

The  remark  applies  to  the  efforts 
of  the  German  apologists  in  this 
country.  Some  of  these  gentle- 
men have  done  better  than  others, 
but  none  of  them  has  got  under 
the  American  skin.  Their  best  has 
been  to  bring  some  ideas  and 
arguments  to  American  attention 
that  later  on  may  help  to  inspire 
sentiments  that  may  be  useful 
195 


196  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

to  Germany.  A  good  many  of  us, 
for  instance,  think  with  sympathy 
of  Germany's  yearning  for  good 
colonial  possessions,  where  Ger- 
mans may  develop  as  Germans 
and  the  German  language  will  not 
have  to  yield  to  English.  That 
seems  a  natural  aspiration  for  a 
crowded  and  energetic  country, 
but  while,  in  a  way,  we  sym- 
pathize with  it,  we  are  not  ready 
yet  to  help  break  up  and  make 
over  the  various  continents  in 
order  to  further  it.  No  doubt  we 
understand  and  like  the  English 
civilization  better  than  the  Ger- 
man because  it  is  based  in  demo- 
cracy and  is  more  like  our  own, 
but  we  are  not  finally  committed 
to  the  idea  that  the  English  are  the 


GERMANY  AND  COLONIES  197 

Chosen  People  and  ought  for  the 
world *s  good  to  inherit  the  earth. 
We  should  be  glad  to  have  the 
Germans  have  greater  territorial 
possessions  if  it  could  be  accom- 
plished without  intolerable  disturb- 
ance and  if  the  Germans  showed 
any  considerable  qualifications 
for  successful  colonization.  But 
nobody  seems  able  to  endure  Ger- 
man rule  but  Germans.  They  can 
stand  the  German  method  when 
they  have  to.  Other  peoples  hate 
it,  and  even  Germans,  once  they 
have  escaped  it,  stay  away. 

It  is  related  that  when  Dean 
Richmond  was  president  of  the 
New  York  Central  Railroad  some 
one  said  to  him:  "I  see  all  your 
conductors  have  gold  watches  and 


198  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

diamond  pins.  Those  men  must 
be  knocking  down  fares.  I  should 
think  you'd  discharge  them." 
But  Mr.  Richmond  said:  "These 
present  conductors  have  already 
provided  themselves  with  dia- 
mond pins  and  gold  watches.  Do 
you  really  think  we  would  do  well 
to  substitute  for  them  a  lot  of  new 
men  with  diamonds  and  watches 
still  to  get?" 

So,  in  spite  of  our  sympathy 
with  German  desires,  the  profit  to 
the  world  of  having  Germany 
supersede  England  as  a  colonial 
power  seems  very  dubious.  Eng- 
land has  been  greedy  and  is  now 
pretty  well  glutted;  she  has  been 
harsh  and  has  grown  almost  gen- 
tle; her  manners  have  been  bad. 


GERMANY  AND  COLONIES  199 

but  they  have  improved.  In  so 
far  as  she  niles  colonies  now,  she 
does  it  chiefly  by  persuasion.  The 
thought  of  having  Germany,  the 
new  broom,  sweep  through  the 
continents,  excites  far  more  dis- 
may than  enthusiasm. 

No  doubt  there  should  be  organ- 
ized a  great  holding  company  to 
take  title  to  the  outlying  portions 
of  the  earth,  and  give  deserving 
peoples  privileges  of  residence  and 
exploitation  in  spare  lands  that 
would  suit  them.  If  there  were 
such  a  holding  company  it  may  be 
that  Germany  would  get  good 
openings,  for  there  are  vast  regions 
which  her  widely  advertised 
Kultur  might  very  much  improve. 


2O0  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

Instead  of  which  wc  see  it  now 
devoted  to  an  appalling  destruc- 
tion: sacrificing  by  the  hundred 
thousand  the  lives  of  its  own  young 
men — very  good  young  men,  most 
of  them — killing  also  by  the  hun- 
dred thousand  the  valuable  and 
rather  scarce  young  men  of 
France  and  Belgium  and  England, 
and  wasting  in  like  manner  the 
youth  of  illimitable  Russia,  who 
has  room  for  them  all,  and  involv- 
ing Austria  and,  one  after  another, 
the  other  outlying  nations,  in 
corresponding  sacrifice  and  de- 
struction. 

It  is  bad,  bad,  bad ;  and  all  grows 
out  of  the  vice  of  nationality, 
which  is  so  nearly  a  virtue  and 
yet    raises    such    particular    hob. 


GERMANY  AND  COLONIES  201 

And  here  in  these  States  all  we 
seem  able  to  do  about  it  is  to  say 
how  dreadful  it  is,  and  moan,  and 
give  something  to  a  fund,  and  go 
home  to  dinner.  How  are  we  go- 
ing to  get  our  medicine?  How 
shall  this  enormous  discipline  the 
world  is  undergoing  be  brought 
home  to  us  to  our  spiritual  profit? 

Of  course  we  have  been  pinched 
in  the  general  squeeze.  A  great 
deal  of  our  business  has  had  and  is 
having  a  hard  scramble  to  get 
along.  The  collapse  of  the  cotton 
market  is  only  one  of  many  troubles 
growing  out  of  the  war  which  put 
people  out  of  their  habits  of  living, 
and  involve  loss  of  employment, 
and  distress.     The  war  does  reach 


202  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

us  and  may  yet  pinch  us  hard 
enough  to  compel  great  co-oper- 
ative and  perhaps  governmental 
measures  for  relief  at  home  as  well 
as  abroad.  But  it  might,  and 
may,  go  further  than  that  as  a 
disciplinary  experience  and  yet 
not  exceed  our  national  needs. 
The  seeds  of  it  seem  to  be  very 
deep.  It  is  the  culmination  of 
a  world-wide  unrest,  due  to  some- 
thing more  than  armament  and 
the  jealousies  of  nations,  and  felt 
in  this  country  and  China  as 
distinctly  as  in  the  countries  that 
are  fighting.  We  of  the  United 
States  have  by  no  means  escaped 
this  general  infection.  We  have 
had  the  suffrage  agitation,  the 
Progressive  movement,  such  queer 


GERMANY  AND  COLONIES  203 

signs  of  uneasiness  as  last  year's 
fashions  and  the  tango,  and  an 
anti-capitaHst  revolution  with  in- 
dictments and  a  fight  against  the 
railroads  and  the  trusts.  England 
has  like  disquietudes  or  worse. 
France  had  its  excitements,  like 
the  Caillaux  case  and  a  political 
deadlock.  Conditions  peculiar  to 
Europe  have  made  the  disturbance 
over  there  culminate  in  this  huge 
and  deadly  conflict  of  nations,  out 
of  which  the  survivors  may  hope  to 
emerge  cured  of  their  insanities. 
But  how  are  we  to  be  cured  of  ours? 
Will  the  treatment  we  have  had, 
joined  to  what  we  are  getting  as 
we  sit  here  on  the  edge  of  the  hurri- 
cane, be  enough?  Is  there  dis- 
cipline enough  coming,  joined  to 


204  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

what  we  have  had,  to  knock  the 
nonsense  out  of  us,  too,  and  jolt 
us  back  into  just  relations  with 
the  realities  of  life? 

That  is  the  nature  of  the  ques- 
tion which  many  minds  must  be 
cogitating  as  we  read  of  the  Ger- 
mans crossing  and  recrossing  the 
Yser  on  the  bodies  of  their  fellows. 
Tolstoi,  in  his  curious  forecast  of 
world  troubles  at  this  time,  saw 
them  all  proceed  out  of  the  "eternal 
courtesan,  CommerciaHsm. "  But 
that  means  the  whole  world- 
structure  of  money-making  busi- 
ness, with  its  vast  machinery  of 
machines,  factories,  shops,  banks; 
the  whole  apparatus  of  industrial- 
ism   and    finance.     Against    that 


GERMANY  AND  COLONIES  205 

there  has  been  proceeding  in  this 
country  a  fight  for  fifteen  years 
which  has  come  to  a  point  where 
the  whole  money-caste  (so  to 
speak)  has  been  dislodged  from 
political  control,  leaving  the  admin- 
istration of  government  for  the 
most  part  in  the  hands  of  men  who 
can  prove  an  alibi  when  accused  of 
being  seen  in  the  company  of  a 
dollar.  As  a  result,  a  very  large 
proportion  of  the  experience, 
ability,  and  leadership  of  the 
country  has  become  unavailable 
for  the  public  service,  and  the 
difficulty  and  expense  of  command- 
ing a  sufficient  advertisement  to 
capture  the  public  fancy  has  made 
it  hard  to  bring  forward  the  best 
men  from  the  residue.     Neverthe- 


206  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

less,  we  get  some  of  them — perhaps 
enough;  and  under  Mr.  Wilson's 
leadership  we  are  getting  along 
pretty  well.  But  the  great  war 
has  caught  us  in  the  middle  of  a 
big  experiment,  and  if,  as  seems 
possible,  we  are  called  upon  to  be 
an  example  to  the  world  and  a  life- 
preserver  to  the  perishing,  we 
shall  have  to  make  a  monumental 
scramble  to  discharge  the  con- 
spicuous duties  thrust  upon  us 
with  the  requisite  energy  and  skill. 
The  world  seems  to  be  getting  into 
a  condition  which  somebody  will 
have  to  rise  to,  and  nobody  else 
appears  of  the  requisite  size  to  do 
it  but  ourselves.  But  size  will  not 
be  enough  unless  we  have  also 
quality  and  to  manifest  that  will 


GERMANY  AND  COLONIES  207 

call  for  a  greater  co-operation  of 
the  intelligence  and  vigor  of  the 
country  than  our  political  affairs 
have  seen  for  a  good  while  past. 
There  is  likely  to  be  more  for  this 
country  to  do  than  to  trade  on  the 
misfortunes  of  Europe,  or  even 
spend  what  it  can  spare  in  retail 
succoring.  A  huge  effort  to  help 
may  be  required  of  us  which  will 
lift  us  out  of  the  trough  of  selfish- 
ness as  war  is  lifting  the  nations  of 
Europe,  and  will  compel  such  a  use 
of  all  our  resources  and  such  a 
co-operation  of  all  our  abilities  as 
shall  really  teach  us  what  we  are 
and  can  do  if  we  have  to  try. 

Our  immediate  opportunity  is  to 
succor  the  distressed  Bulgarians. 
No  one  is  in  a  position  to  do  that 


2o8  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

but  ourselves.  What  we  have 
done  so  far  is  but  a  drop  in  the 
bucket.  The  people  at  large  have 
not  yet  got  into  this  work,  and 
until  they  do  it  will  not  be  done 
in  the  measure  that  the  emergency 
calls  for. 


THE    GERMAN    IDEAL 

PROFESSOR  Kuno  Francke 
of  Harvard  is  one  of  the 
more  successful  German 
apologists  because  he  is  intelligent 
and  not  overbearing.  He  comes, 
not  from  Prussia,  like  Dr.  Miinster- 
berg,  but  from  Schleswig-Hol- 
stein,  and  has  apparently  inherited 
amenities  with  his  Danish  deri- 
vation. In  a  recent  speech  in 
Boston  he  explains  that  while  there 
is  still  work  for  freedom  to  do  in 
Germany,  "it  cannot  be  said  that 
freedom  during  the  last  generation 
14  209 


210  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

has  been  the  great  national  need  of 
Germany,  or  that  it  is  any  longer 
the  ideal  that  inspires  Germany's 
best  men."  It  has  not,  he  says, 
been  replaced  by  militarism,  nor 
is  world-dominion  the  ideal  of  re- 
sponsible Germans.  Their  ideal  is 
of  national  self -improvement  and 
national  efficiency.  "To  the  Ger- 
man the  State  is  a  spiritual,  col- 
lective personality  leading  a  life 
of  its  own  beyond  the  lives  of 
individuals,  and  its  aim  is  not  the 
protection  of  the  happiness  of 
individuals,  but  the  making  of  a 
nobler  type  of  man  and  the  achieve- 
ment of  high  excellence  in  all  the 
departments  of  life."  This  is  the 
Kaiser's  ideal,  too,  and  his  glori- 
fication of  his  office  "makes  him 


THE  GERMAN  IDEAL       211 

the  incarnation  of  the  active  and 
disciplined  Germany." 

We  are  all  trying  hard  just  now 
to  understand  the  Germans,  and 
these  words  of  Dr.  Francke  are 
adapted  to  help  us.  Just  now  this 
German  ideal  has  to  be  taken  in 
association  with  about  five  million 
highly  competent  soldiers,  all 
practicing  to  spread  it,  and  a  large 
supply  of  exceptionally  efficient 
Krupp  guns  exploding  to  the  same 
end.  The  association  is  a  little 
trying  to  the  ideal.  Is  that  a  mere 
misfortune,  or  do  the  Army  and 
the  ideal  belong  together?  Is  this 
German  ideal  necessarily  tied  up  to 
militarism  because  it  is  necessarily 
hostile  to  the  ideal  of  individual 
freedom   that   belongs   to   such 


212  THE  WAR,  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

nations  as  France,  England,  Bel- 
gium, and  the  United  States? 

Nobody  outside  of  Germany 
would  object,  it  would  seem,  to 
Dr.  Francke*s  German  ideal  unless 
there  is  something  in  it  that  threat- 
ens the  security  of  other  nations. 

Is  there  something? 

Our  ideal  of  individual  freedom 
is  vague,  vulnerable,  impracticable 
often,  outrageous  sometimes.  A 
lot  of  bad  government  usually  gets 
in  with  it. 

This  German  ideal  is  smooth, 
efficient,  steady,  powerful — until 
it  blows  up. 

Must  it  blow  up?  Does  it  carry 
in  it  the  germs  of  certain  destruc- 
tion? 

There  is  so  much  about  it  that 


THE  GERMAN  IDEAL       213 

is  strange,  almost  incredible,  to  us. 
It  is  so  old-time- Jewish  in  some 
things.  The  Kaiser  seems  to  be 
to  the  Germans  what  Moses  was 
to  the  Israelites — a  go-between 
between  them  and  God;  a  leader,  a 
master.  All  peoples,  it  seems,  must 
start  that  way,  gathering  around  a 
master  whose  will  protects  and 
directs  them,  but  it  is  hard  to  think 
of  the  Germans  as  beginners.  But 
as  a  great  modern  power  they  are 
beginners,  and  this  system  that 
they  have  endured  has  brought 
them  along,  in  material  things  at 
least,  very  wonderfully. 

But  has  it  been  doing  what  Dr. 
Francke  says  its  ideal  calls  for? 
Has  it  been  making  a  nobler  type 
of  man?    It  has  certainly  achieved 


214  ?^^^£  ^^^^.  WEEK  BY  WEEK 

high  excellence  in  many  of  the 
departments  of  life.  But  in  all? 
No.  Not  in  all.  It  is  good  in 
Krupps  and  chemistry,  in  manu- 
factures, in  trade,  in  civic  gov- 
ernment, in  the  regulation  of  life 
for  the  promotion  of  average  com- 
fort. It  is  bad  in  art.  It  is  not 
notable  in  the  higher  forms  of 
literature.  And  as  to  the  great 
point  of  making  nobler  types  of 
men — has  it  done  it?  The  Ger- 
mans are  notably  efficient,  but  are 
they  creative,  are  they  inventive, 
and  are  they  nobler  than  other 
men?  They  have  told  us  that 
democratic  France  was  decadent; 
that  democratic  England  was  a 
pretense  and  an  empty  shell;  that 
Russia  was  barbarous.     They  said 


THE  GERMAN  IDEAL       215 

nothing  about  Belgium.  There 
ought  to  be  a  Nobel  prize  for 
nobility.  If  there  were,  would  it 
go  to  Germany?  One  sees  in 
Germany  immense  efficiency,  cour- 
age, aggressiveness,  capacity  to 
suffer,  but  where,  so  far,  has  she 
been  noble? 

In  Belgium?  At  Louvain?  At 
Rheims? 

Her  speciality  is  fighting,  but 
man  for  man  she  can't  handle  the 
Belgians  or  the  new.  French,  and 
her  superiority  to  the  Russians  is 
dubious,  while  as  for  the  English, 
they  are  but  a  handful  so  far  in 
this  war,  but  it  has  been  a  handful 
for  Germany. 

No;  get  them  out  of  their  shops 
and  laboratories  and  the  current 


2i6  THE  WAR,   WEEK  BY  WEEK 

Germans  don't  seem  to  be  of  an 
egregious  nobility.  The  Belgians 
can  give  them  odds  in  it,  and  they 
seem  to  have  nothing  on  the  lately 
decadent  French.  They  must  be 
learning  a  wonderful  lot  about 
the  qualities  of  other  people,  and 
perhaps  they  are  revising  their  self- 
esteem. 

Arthur  Withington,  of  New- 
buryport,  who  writes  a  letter  to 
the   Springfield   Repuhlicanj  says: 

*' Efficiency  and  the  acceptance 
of  arbitrary  authority  by  the  sacri- 
fice of  liberty  is  admitted  as  a 
Socialistic  end.  In  other  words, 
Socialism  is  in  being  in  Germany 
to-day.  The  Kaiser  is  fighting  its 
fight  and  German  culture  is  Social- 
ism. 


THE  GERMAN  IDEAL       217 

What  is  there  in  Dr.  Francke's 
exposition  of  the  German  ideal 
that  conflicts  with  this  opinion? 

Mr.  Withington  says  further: 

^*When  this  war  is  over,  Social- 
ism, Prohibition,  the  Kaiser's 
mailed  fist,  Lord  Kitchener's  mili- 
tary rule,  and  all  other  manifes- 
tations of  the  gospel  of  force  and 
the  Anti- Christian  movement  will 
have  less  blind  followers  than  dur- 
ing the  last  quarter  of  a  century. 
There  will  be  a  return  to  the  simple 
faith  of  the  fathers  that  govern- 
ment is  a  necessary  evil." 

Shouldn't  wonder;  shouldn't 
wonder  at  all.  And  not  the  least 
of  the  wonders  to  come  will  be  the 
adjustment  of  the  German  ideal 
to  the  change  in  faith. 


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